Here I Stand in the Light of Day
by ArtisticWord
Summary: It has been one day since Arendelle thawed, and things are more or less okay. Instead of fear however, A certain Queen is now chained by guilt and depression. Can her sister free her again? Or will this Queen never see the light of day again? (Sisterly tale) (Kristanna involved.)(To be continued)
1. First time in Forever

Once upon a time, just a day after the Great Thaw...

* * *

Emotional Vulnerability was a term Elsa had grown familiar with in recent times. It wasn't a true term per se, but the words fit so perfectly together to describe herself and how she behaved in the past. Thanks to specific events, she had experienced more than thirteen years and seventeen hours of Emotional Vulnerability.. The woman berated herself for that; how she irrationally she'd acted in those last seventeen hours; running away from her life and into the unknown world.

Elsa asked herself all too often why she ran from Arendelle when Anna discovered her...her _curse._ When Anna stood there with her glove, the queen had simply bolted out of the doors and then into the crowd gathered for her. Instead of trying to calm herself down, Elsa could only think of the damage her curse had done to Anna. And then she traveled across the fjord into the wilderness like an imbecile. Yes, Elsa had called herself that in her mind and believed it. She felt so stupid for rushing into the wilderness blindly, knowing now that she could have been easily found by a wild animal. Or a person or person(s) who would take advantage of her meek and terrified feelings at that time; she didn't show it but Elsa knew she was easily intimidated and a scared person or a person with shaky confidence was easiest to control. A fiend could have discovered her the way a devilish snake could have found a helpless mouse, using false words to soothe her into a fragile sense of security. Then that fiend could have stolen something of value to her, wether physical or in much worse ways. Elsa could have been killed in that forest by a thief, and no one would know of the foolish woman's fate.

And she knew that wasn't the worst part about running away; she put others in grave danger because she was scared of her loving sister's reaction.. In fact, Anna could have died from the wolves of Arendelle in the forest or encounter a fiend that Elsa did not. Anna could have been left with Hans had he been able to convince her to stay instead of leaving to search for Elsa and she would have been married to an abusive, cruel husband that didn't deserve her sister. Arendelle would be held in the grip of a tyrant and an arrogant fool, because of her. The thought of someone destroying her sister's innocence and making her submissive was enough to send a shiver down her spine, to bring the prick of tears to her eyes.

Yes, leaving the grounds of Arendelle was the worst mistake of her life, this she knew for a fact. And Elsa also knew she would never forgive herself for it.

A sudden knock jolted Elsa out of her thoughts, and she suddenly remembered that she was in her dormitory, sitting in the comfy sofa to study a few was all Elsa had done much of since she'd freed Arendelle from a cold death, and she wanted to do it. Most of the papers were concerning apologies to farmers; Farmers who lost their crops because of her wintery curse. There were even a few families that had sickly members pass away because they could not survive the temperatures. There had been at least two riots in the courtyard, and only one of them ended without violence.

The knock was heard again, and Elsa blinked blearily. Before she could speak or move, the door opened and revealed a not too friendly face that walked in. She recognized him as Octavius, her chief advisor as of recent times, as the last chief advisor took for retirement. Octavious was a middle aged man, one with a very tall build and a slightly bald head. His clothing was sharply ironed, while his gaze was a scorning and piercing one. She suddenly wished she'd moved to the door sooner.

"Um...er...Good evening Octavious." Elsa stuttered as usual, watching as he stalked up to her desk and never pulled his eyes off of her. "Is th-there something I can do- I-I mean, help y-you with?"

"Apparently NOT." He spat, gesturing to the papers on her desk with a single blink. "I see you have hardly touched these papers, My Queen."

Elsa remembered the sheets she had to look over. "O-Oh! Right. Heh heh...erm..." She frantically scooped up a sheet, timidly shrinking in her chair under his eyes. "M-My apologies, Octavious...I was distracted b-by d-daydreams I suppose..."

" There was once a king who had angered a mob because he had not signed an agreement over trade. They all stormed up to his door, angry at the king and wishing to dethrone him." The man told her, walking behind her almost arrogantly and placing his hands on her exposed shoulders. "And he told them all that he had merely been lost in thought...and they all left him be...Hmm. Tell me, My Queen, Do you believe that tale?"

While he hadn't done anything to cause harm to shoulders, Elsa wasn't at all comfortable with this. His voice was above her, but she couldn't bring herself to look up at him. She stared down at her desk, quietly and seriously. "...n-no, Sir."

"Precisely. Any Monarch with that response would be dethroned and possibly worse. You would not want to lose your position having gained it so recently, now would you?"

She wished she could sink lower in her chair, so she could escape again in anyway. But escaping nearly killed her before."N-No Sir..."

"And you wouldn't want Arendelle to be without a ruler, would you? "

Elsa bit her bottom lip for a moment, before swallowing. "N-No Sir."

"So you're not going to childishly daydream, and instead you're going to do what you must do?"

"...y-yes Sir."

He made a small sound of approval and released her shoulders, walking over to the door of the room and pausing as he opened it up. He frowned at her, although one could say it was a light scowl. "Do what you're supposed to is what I advise, My Queen. The kingdom has no room for more mistakes... Not after after your recent ones."

He left slowly, closing the door behind himself and making his footsteps more and more quiet as he considered his final words with a dull ache in her chest beginning to grow. She'd realized that this ache was her own heart, after the memories if her mistakes set in. She'd made so many besides just running away and endangering those closest to her. Elsa sighed and reached up to rub the bridge of her nose.

* * *

" _No, Anna!" Elsa's eyes were brimming with tears as she disappeared from her sister's view. In many ways she wished she could dissapear altogether and never be bothered. "I-I'm just trying to protect you..."_

 _"You don't have to! I'm not afraid!" Anna told her as she jogged up the stairs, smiling softly after her."Please don't shut me out again! Please don't slam the door!"_

 _Elsa noticed Anna had reached the top and began to climb the other set of stairs in a hurry. Why couldn't Anna leave? After all that time she spent away from her little sister, why wasn't she angrier than now? She knew she deserved any harshness her sister through at her._

 _"you don't have to keep your distance anymooooore! Cause for the first time in forever, I finally understand!" Anna raced after her and elevated her voice."For the first time in forever! We can fix this hand in hand! We can head down this mountain! You don't have to live in feeear!"_

 _Elsa slowed to a halt in one of her rooms, staring out at the balcony from 18 feet away. Elsa stopped at the doorway. Her sibling just didn't understand this the way Elsa did, the threat of her curse and how it acted at random without control. "Cause for the first time in foreveeer, I'll be right hereeee!"_

 _"A-Anna..." Elsa turned around and gave a sad smile, believing that she could perhaps reason with the princess. "Please go back hooome...your life awaits! Go enjoy the sun and open up thee gates._

 _ **"** Yeah, but —"_

 _ **"** I know. You mean weeeell, but leave me beeee..." Elsa frowned again as she walked towards the balcony and sighed in the Setting sun. She had walked out into the light of day when the sun first came up, and the memory of being so confident came back to her. "Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and freeee."_

 _When Anna came to her side, Elsa flinched and walked away from her sadly before any harm could be done. "_ _Just stay away and you'll be safe from meeee..."_

 _Anna cringed." Actually we're not..."_

 _"What do you mean you're not?" Elsa turned around, her confusement masking the sadness._

 _"I get the feeling you don't knooow..." Anna gulped._

 _" And What do I not knoow?"_

 _"Weell..." Anna nervously started. "Arendelle's in deep, deep, deep, deep... snooow."_

 _Elsa trembled with shock and horror. She had been more of a fool than she realized! How could she have disregarded the snow around the mountain as regular snow? How could she have ignored Arendelle in the distance? "... What?!"_

 _"You've kind of set off an eternal winter... Everywhere."_

 _ **"** EVERYWHERE?!" Elsa's heart skipped a beat at those words. The temperature of the room decreased dramatically._

 _ **"** Well, it's okay," Anna reassured her. "you can just unfreeze it!"_

 _Elsa shook her head and walked away from her sister again, crestfallen. "I-I can't, I — I don't know how!_

 _ **"** Sure you can! I know you can!" Anna began to follow her._

 _The two now tried to explain to each other of what could and could not happen all at once, singing over each other as best as they could. Frustration was building inside of Elsa's chest, making her face strain with the stress she bore._

 _"Cause for the first time in foreveeeer..." Anna smiled and tried reaching out for her._

 _"Oooooooh, I'm such a FOOL, I can't be FREEEEEEE!" Elsa hardly noticed as she moved away, her hands rising and rubbing each other in anxiety._

 _"You don't have to be afraaaaaid!"_

 _"No escape from the storm inside of meeeee!"Elsa clutched her hands over chest as she felt more pain than before, the pain brought on by the guilt of her curse. It had ruined her life so much now, trying to make her free and threatening lives in the process. She didn't want to hurt anyone, but it was so frustrating to not be able to stop it. She didn't notice a_ _blizzard was quickly forming in the room. Cold wind began push at Anna and slow her movement as Elsa stopped in front of her ice mirror._

 _"We can work this out together!"_

 _"I can't control the cuuuurse!"_

 _"You'll reverse the storm you've maaaade!"_

 _Elsa whirled around and glared at her sister, staying where she was while the blizzard intensified greatly "OH ANNA PLEASE, YOU'LL ONLY MAKE IT WOOORSE!"_

 _Anna gazed at her worriedly for a moment, but was not deterred by Elsa's snapping and returned the glare in a determined fashion. "_ _Doooon't panic!"_

 _"There's so much feeear!" Elsa's voice cracked, hinting that she could burst into tears at any moment. With the expression on her face, anyone could tell she was going to._

 _"We'll make the sun shine briiight!"_

 _"You're not safe heeeere!" The Snow Queen stressed to her, her hands becomingfists that glowed distantly._

 _Elsa's hands came to the sides of her head and her eyes were tightly shut, as if they could stop the tears from escaping. Everything she'd run away from had only crashed back down upon her in a single stroke._

 _"We can face this thiiing together; we can change this wiiinter weather; and every thing will be all riiiiight!" Anna continued against the blizzard, holding up her hand to try and see past the clouds of white. She was closing the distance between them, but not very fast._ _She was fourteen feet away...then nine_ _feet..._

 _"NnnnnnooooooooooOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAAAH-IIIIIIIIIIIIIII **CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN'T!"**_

 _Elsa, releasing full tears now, couldn't hold it any longer and whirled around, blasting pure blue magic from her palms. Anna's eyes widened, and Elsa realized what she had done all too late to stop it._

 _The blast struck her sister's chest dead center._

* * *

Once again, Elsa was jolted back into reality by a knock on the door, but this one had a more lively tune to it. The woman blinked at the familar sound and sighed quietly, before she remembered the papers. She grabbed a pen and signed four out of the nine papers as quickly as possible, figuring that she could actually read them better later. She stood up onto her feet and walked towards the door. With a single hand she tugged open the door by it's doorknob, and was greeted with the sight one of happy sibling in her signature red pigtails.

"Took ya long enough, Sis!" Anna spoke in a cheerfully high tone, her hands held behind her back like a small girl. Elsa couldn't help but feel her lips curve into a small smile and stifle a giggle. "I thought you were dead in there."

"No...just looking over a few documents." The Queen told her, shrugging tiredly and rubbing the back of her neck. It sure did hurt a lot. " I guess I kind of daydreamed in there...Did you want something, little sister?"

Anna grinned wider st her, something that made Elsa a bit excited to say the least. It must be really good for Anna to be smiling the way she was. "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, I was gonna ask you something..."

"Yes? Go on." Elsa motioned for to continue impatiently and gazed at her closely.

The princess cleared her throat before she smiled again. " _Do you wanna build a snowmaaaaan? It'll be lots of fuuuuuun! "_

The Snow Queen's eyes widened; Was Anna singing out her own question the way she always did when they were younger? _We can build it youuur way! Come on, I say! Before he dries up from the suuuuuuun!"_

The princess glanced behind Elsa, presumably at the papers on her desk before continuing. " _I know you're a bit busy: reading That and This, but life iiiis way too shoooooort! Do you wanna build a snowmaaaaan? It doesn't have to be a snowmaaaaaaaaaan..."_

A sad smile was the first response to Anna. While building a snowman was something she'd wanted to do first with her sister when she returned, the monarch couldn't help but remember that she had left her to build her own snowmen for thirteen years. How could she begin to make up for lost time and then some? "Well...Anna, I don't..."

Her sister's expression fell instantly, and it felt like someone was stabbing Elsa's heart. "Oh...w-well, that's okay, sis. I know you're busy, so if you don't want to today then-"

"I never said no, Anna." She was told. "I was going to say 'I don't think we have any more carrots'. So, we won't have a proper nose."

"Oh...Truuuuue." Anna instantly perked up and took hold of Elsa's hands with a mischievous grin, one that scared the queen ever so slightly. "But not all snowmen have noses, now do they?"

* * *

Anna couldn't stop smiling as she half tugged her sister and half ran down the stairs like a mad woman. When she received the practical yes to building a snowman, the princess simply had to begin right away. Somehow she bounded over four steps at a time and since Elsa was led down just as fast she often tripped over her own feet. Still, she didn't voice any negative opinion aside from shrieking every once in a while.

"Aaaaaugh!" They finally reached the bottom of the stairs, where Elsa caught her breath. Anna took a moment to glance over her sister. She was rather thin, a bit more so than Anna herself, and yet she seemed so much more beautiful. Perhaps it was her age that gave her such looks or maybe her higher position than Anna thatvgave her elegance. Whatever it was, she wished she could someday have it.

"Okay!...Ow...My legs are still intact, I suppose." Elsa groaned, gingerly by testing her calves. Anna broke from her trance once Elsa looked in her direction. "...what?"

"Oh, Nothing. You...You just still look... Beautifuller." Anna cracked a grin, and felt happier when she saw Elsa stifle a laugh.

"Hmm. Thank you, Anna..." Elsa began to walk towards the ballroom now, as if she remembered their times together. Anna was of course happy about this, and decided to make another joke when she noticed Elsa's light limp.

"Hey! What's with that limp?" The princess began while walking backwards while in front of her. "Weren't you able to run up a mountain in like, a few hours?"

Elsa's smile fell almost instantly into a somewhat depressed pout, and she cast her eyes on anything but the princess. Anna's smile fell too once she realized that her joking choice wasn't really something to joke about right now, and she reached out to try and touch her. "I-Im sorry I shouldn't have..."

"No." Elsa flinched away from Anna's fingers, and when the princess stopped walking she walked around her to the ballroom doors. "It's fine. Really..."

Anna sighed sadly and followed her sister into the room. No matter how much she had grown, Anna always found that the ballroom was huge. With the highly priced and furnished floors decorated in the same manner as the ceiling, it made the room so much more enjoyable. Moving her eyes away from the beauty of the designs, she looked towards the elevated ground and spotted the thrones that once belonged to her parents. She tore her eyes away from there reluctantly and back to her sister. "Okay...I guess you can do the whole...thing you do?"

Elsa gazed back, raising her hands slowly, but paused. She looked afraid to move an inch, let alone to create snow. Anna held her hands softly, squeezing them once before letting go. "It's okay...if you freeze the room or you.." She couldn't bring herself to say anything involving hurting Anyone with her powers. "You know, just remember :Love will Thaw."

To her delight, Anna saw Elsa close her eyes and breathe in through her nose. "Love...will Thaw."

With a look of fierce dread on her face, The Queen raised her arms in the air abruptly and a beam of blue energy shot up towards the ceiling in a flash, before exploding into a bigger flash. The tiny blue pieces of sparkling magic transformed slowly to snowflakes, some big and some small and some inbetween. Just like regular snowflakes they were cool to the touch, slow enough to look like floating lanterns and looked completely different from one another. She watched her sister's arms shoot out to the side and a thick sheet of ice quickly surged underneath their shoes before spreading out to every corner of the floor. Snow slopes rose in various areas, cushioning the falling snow and growing tall with each tiny flake.

"You know something...I don't think I'm ever gonna get tired of seeing you do this." Anna smiled, picking up a handful of the powdery white substance before throwing it all into the air. Elsa looked impressed, pleased and soon more confident in a matter of seconds. Which was great for Anna; confidence goes hand in hand with fun."It's...cool, ya know?"

"I'll try and ignore that pun." Elsa shrugged, her smile relaxing into her regular look. "And yes, most of the time it's nice."

"More like all the time." Anna corrected her as if she were an expert on siblings with magic powers. "That's a really neat gift, you know-"

"No it is not." She flinched at the interruption and saw Elsa glare at her hands softly. It wasn't a sight she wanted to see again."This is a curse."

She wanted to disagree terribly with her, but Elsa ended the silence before she could even begin." This has done nothing but cause pain for the both of us. It took away thirteen years of our lives from each other, Anna. It harmed this kingdom and...and it nearly brought you to death itself."

Anna picked up a small scoop of snow from the ground as quickly as she could and chucked it into Elsa's face.

When Elsa was done looking as if she'd been struck by a random object, the princess was holding another and glaring daggers at her. "Anna?! What w-was that for?"

The princess raised her eyebrow,not to mention a pointed finger. "That...was for saying you have a curse!"

"I do have a curse!"

Poomf.

"Hey! Cut that out!"

Anna leaned down to scoop up another handful of snow, and her sister instinctively stepped back from her with arms raised. "And that was for lying about you having a curse again! And this is for making awkward and depressing silence! I don't want you to be depressed, Elsa!"

"Hey! This isn't funny!"

Elsa gasped when she was struck in the ribs by the next snowball, not able to cover the tiniest smile on her face from Anna's eyes. The greatly freckled woman grinned much wider, and picked up two more snowballs. "And this is for not defending yourself! And this is because I want you to smile! And THIS is because I love throwing snowballs at you!"

Finally, She saw a quick flick of Elsa's hands and a rather large snowball shot out at the princess and knocked itself into her stomach. With a yelp of surprise, Anna fell back into the snowdrift.

* * *

 _Oh no...What have I done?!_

Greatly horried by her actions, Elsa's hands shot up to cover her mouth. Had she just used her curse against Anna? Had she frozen her heart again by accident? Would this be untreatable if she had? The woman frantically rushed over to her only family and looked over her limp body, afraid to touch it for fear of causing more damage.

"A-Anna?! Are you okay?! Oh I'm so sorry!" Elsa whimpered pathetically. _Oh, this is all my fault! I should never have done this. I shouldn't have-_

"THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!" Anna gleefully sprang up from her position and dusted her skirt off with her hands. "Oops! There's some snow on mah butt."

"You...Y-Youre not hurt?" Elsa asked, almost in disbelief and confusion. "But, y-you fell..."

"Just because I fall, doesn't mean I can't get back up right?"

The Queen didn't answer her at first, since she was occupied with the analyzing the wise sentence. She supposed that just because of an accident earlier in their lives didn't mean that she should still be worried about it. Elsa was still afraid of doing anything bad towards her, but hadn't she promised to be closer with Anna when she returned? Didn't being close forfeit the safety of others?

"*sigh*...you think too much, Elsa." Anna takes when she didn't answer and somehow face palmed the Queen with a handful of snow. " you should try not thinking most of the day! Like me!"

"...Hmm. Is that so?" Elsa felt a bit awkward, but she gave her a devilish smirk and raised one palm abover her other. A ball of blue swirled inward as if it were a hurricane between her hands and suddenly it was a snowball bigger than the last she had thrown. "Then maybe I won't think about the mercy I should give you in this little game of yours."

Anna looked pleasantly surprised and raced up one of the snowy hills. "Come and get me, Snow Queen!"

"Uh...O-Okay! You're sooo...uh, gonna get chased?" She tried in response, feeling guilty that she hadn't done this in a while. Without another thought, Elsa jogged up the hill after her spunky sibling, leaving small footprints in her wake. It was with these steps up the slope that Elsa remembered a particular moment in her life when she first escaped into the mountains.

* * *

" _...It's funny how some distances..make everything seem smaaall!" Elsa seemed to obliviously walk up a steep, snowy valley edge before she turned and walked backwards happily. "and the fears that once controlled mee, can't get to me at Aaa-aaall!"_

 _Elsa turned back around 5 feet from the edge, rearing her arms back as if taking a breath. "It's time to see what I can do!" Elsa thrust her arms out, creating a icy tall and spiky staircase to the other side of the short valley, then made her way to it." To test the liimits and break through!"_

 _Elsa stopped short of the first step, noticing the huge spikes. "No right; no wrong-No rules for meeee!" Elsa's excited smile grew wider when she stepped once, and the spikes disappeared to leave a clean, shiny look to it. She looked up, very happy with her discovery. "Iii'm FREEEEEEEEEE!"_

 _"Let it goooo!" The queen ran up the stairs, 'cleaning' the steps and refurnishing them the most detailed designs and sturdy supporting. "Let it gooooo! I am one with the wind and skyyyy-yyyyy!"_

 _It didn't take long to reach the top and the other side. Once she did, Elsa looked at her surroundings, feeling much more impressed than before. "Let it gooo! Let it gooo-ooo!" The Queen shouted/sang. "You'll never seee my cryyyy!"_

 _Elsa took a short run forward, lifting her foot and stomping the ground as hard as possible._

 _"HERE I STAAAAND!" a gigantic ice snowflake spread out from under their feet like a ripple in a lake. She wiggled her fingers in anticipation and gazed at her hard work. "And here I'll staaay! Let the storm raage ooooon!..."_

* * *

Elsa halted at the very top if the small hill, and spotted her sister peeking out from behind another snow hill before pulling back behind it with a gasp. Excitement fueling her movents, the monarch snuck down the snowy hill while stifling a small laugh. Elsa hesitantly conjured up a snowball and held it in her hand as she neared the slope. The queen leaped behind it with a a brief yell to startle Anna, but didn't find any sign of her. A snowball hit the top of her head, and a look upwards confirmed Anna had climbed to evade capture. "Wow, Elsa! It's raining snowballs!"

Thinking of a comeback to that, Elsa fanned out her fingers and slowly curled them inwards into a fist. The slope the princess had climbed was now rapidly melting, much to Elsa's delight. "Oh really? Looks like its...raining Annas!"

Anna shreiked loudly as she plummeted a short three feet and almost triggered Elsa's apologetic instincts before she shot up on her feet and scampered off. With a loud cackle, she barely missed Elsa's snowball. "Ha Ha! You missed me! You missed!"

"I so did not miss you!" Elsa giggled back and followed with another snowball in her hand. While she hadnt realized it at all, she hadnt yet had another worrying thought about her curse nor was she actually thinking of anything. Her mind was completely focused on dealing out revenge on the number of snowballs that hit her. When Elsa saw the princess make a mad dash across her field of vision, she quickly hurled another large snowball and this time it hit its target. "Woah! I got you, Anna! I actually hit you!"

"See?!" Anna sat up from the ground, her face covered with snow in a hilarious fashion. "Now youre learning to have fun again!"

The woman nodded in agreement, but then stifled a laugh at her snow covered bloodline. "Hehee! You look like you have a beard!"

"Oh yeah?" The woman watched with careful steps backwards as she scooped up her biggest snowball. Elsa squealed and began to run off in search of a hiding spot. "Well I say lady's about throw one heck of a snowball right at yer head!"

The Snow Queen swiftly ducked behind the first snow slope before racing down that aisle of hills, and climbing one as fast as possible. Even with the smile that she been keeping, the only thing that hurt even slightly and that wasn't going to keep her from some much deprived fun. It was indeed sad that she wasted time that could have been had with Anna, but at least she could forget that now and just...be who she once was.

Anna was lost from Elsa's hindsight for a moment, rounding into her own separate mazes of slopes and climbing over thin walls of snow and other such things that made it harder for her to be discovered. When she began to stalk around and look a bit deeper into the maze she made, Elsa spotted a shadow on the side of a slope just near the entrance to the room. She quickly rushed out and tossed her snowball as hard as she could at the figure making the shadow.

"Ha! How do you like t...th-at...?" Her sentence broke apart before it got out and her face paled.

* * *

Anna heard her sibling give out a confident laugh nearby, fueling a freckled smirk and a short sprint across the snowy room. When she neared Elsa, she heard her voice again...but it sounded lower and more worried? Cautiously, the young woman poked her head out from behind the snow slope and winced at the sight: it seemed Elsa was apologizing to the current chief advisor, Octavious.

She herself wasn't very fond of the man, not very fond at all. Ever since he arrived in the castle he'd noticeably been criticizing Anna about her random fun things that she loved to do: speak with Arendelle's citizens, flirt with Kristoff and help with cooking in the kitchen among other fun things. He said those were things a princess had no time to concern herself with, and that she do more royal duties. But those were boooooring, and apparently they weren't mandatory for her.

"Ahem...Good evening, Octavious." The princess forced herself to walk out and up to stand beside her sister, while the advisor brushed himself of snow. She snorted on the inside; Had Elsa hit him with a snowball? That must have been so funny! "What brings you by?"

"Certainly not the want to be hut by a snowball. I've come to _once again_ remind your sister that she has yet to sign all of the papers regarding maintaining the peace in Arendelle." Octavious sneered at the person in question, and Anna narrowed her eyes a bit.

"...M-My apologies, S-Sir." Elsa's eyes were downcast towards her feet, and there was that depressed look on her face again; the expression Anna hated so very much. The Queen's hands nervously rubbed one another as she stammered. "I j-just thought t-that I c-could have a m-moment of time a-alone with my sister...I-It has been a l-long time since I-Ive done this with her..."

"And much longer it should be." He declared, hands folded behind himself. "To think that you and your sister waste your time frolicking when you could be doing what is right for your kingdom..."

"Seriously?" The princess asked incredulously and shrugged. She wasn't a fan of watching while someone berated her sister for enjoying herself. "What's wrong with a little fun?"

"A little fun costs valuable time, your highness. The kingdom would not want to fall because of you two throwing snowballs at each other. "The Advisor continued harshly, casting a glance at Elsa's quivering form. "Do you think anyone here would want Arendelle to be lost because of childish wants? Would your parents want this?"

"Hey!" Anna distantly heard a gasp of surprise from Elsa when the princess stepped in front of her and barked up at Octavious. "I know for a FACT that you don't know what my parents wanted, buddy! They wanted us to be happy!"

"And grow up to be intelligent rulers who know that they duties to perform. " he added, which only added to Anna's anger. Before she could say anything else, she was gently pushed aside by Elsa, who looked up towards Octavious. Knowing that Elsa would back her up on this, she crossed her arms confidently.

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again..."

Anna was shocked; Did she just apologize to him? She had nothing to say sorry for! If anyone should've apologized, it should have been him. She looked st Elsa in disbelief, who remained focused on the man with a an expressionless stare. "I'll get back to those papers...immediately."

"That's better, My Queen. Perhaps you might have time to help things along." He turned on his heel and began to walk off towards the door to open it. Elsa hesiated , for a heartbeat or two, before she followed his footsteps to the door. She briefly flicked her hand and the snowly dissapeared into air. "You should pay attention to your sister, your Highness. You just might learn something from her."

Anna hardly heard him; she was too busy looking towards Elsa, sadly. Why hadn't she backed her up? This was the one time start reconciling with each other and she suddenly helps end it? It didn't make any sense to the princess, Royal duties or not. They would have only played together for an hour so, and then she could have gone back to doing what she was doing. But she never spoke up for herself...

Elsa had only looked toward Anna for two seconds and, as if ashamed of herself, turned her head from her and walked off.

* * *

Seven hours later...

Anna lay on her back tiredly, gazing up the ceiling in concentration. It was confusing to her; the way her sister worked. She was timid and easily told soul, but she could be boisterous and fun to be around if given the right circumstances. Anna assumed it was the years of isolation that caused her currently introverted and depressed personality, and whatever caused the old Elsa to come out was...a mystery to her. Perhaps it was what ever she did on the mountain when she ran away; The princess did remember hearing something odd when she traveled up...like distant singing from afar. But that was impossible it seemed, no one's voice could so loud...could they? Shaking that thought out, she returned to the whole 'really quiet sister' problem. There had to be way to get the old Elsa to make a full return, even if there was 2% of new Elsa left in there...it would definitely take some work. And then...would it be possible? Could this much social damage be repaired between them? Did Anna have the strength to do it?

The princess blinked when she heard something small, like a whisper from somewhere. She listened closer and narrowed her eyes as she concentrated. It sound like it was coming behind her, but there was nothing but wall behind her. However, Elsa had moved into the next room when she returned to the castle, so it might have been her. With this in mind, Anna eagerly pressed her ear to the wall and tried as hard as she could to listen. She could hear the sound quite well from her end of the wall, as surprising as it was.

"...n-no...anna...no, p-please..."

Anna cringed sadly; was Elsa having a nightmare?! She assumed they both would have nightmares after what they had been through together, but she hardly imagined that the nightmares would start now. She felt an urge to get up from her bed, rush into Elsa's room and suddenly embrace her; the way her mother would do for Anna when she was little. But Anna didn't dare move a muscle or try to at all, much to her sadness.

Even if she did go, she knew nothing of how to console anyone.

* * *

 **So...wow. My own story kind of got me right in the heart strings. I hope it got you too, because that's the point of this story: to convey some of the emotions that might be seen almost directly after the movie, hopefully at least. I've given the sister's some personalities that are kind of close to canon. Elsa is quieter, and either thinks a lot instead of acting or has flashbacks. Anna is...Anna. She talks a lot, and shows her true feeling as well as a goal for Elsa to be happy again.**

 **I really, really reeeeally encourage some constructive criticism on the plot or characters of the story. Next chapter should involve a certain someone visiting her parents, as well as attempts to help personalities grow. Thanks Again!**


	2. In Summer

The woman was finally finished; her shift had ended at exactly 3: 59. Arendelle's pub could watch itself for another nine hours before she had to come back and do this exact same thing. It was tough for the woman in her mid thirties to say up at such hours, but the Pub's pay was surprisingly good to her. It was more than enough to help her husband and small child with whatever taxes were imposed towards them. She sighed in relief and blew a strand of brown hair from her forehead before she looked down to her left and noticed a chore she'd forgotten to do.

Charlotte swiftly scooped up the four trash bags and carried them in tight fists out the back of the pub to the dump area. The air was brisk despite it being summer, and the chilling look of the full moon would be enough to give anyone frightening imaginations. She merely reminded herself that such imaginations didn't have any time to be in her head and she walked back inside casually. She was about to move around the countertop and walk out through the front door before she locked it...when she noticed something odd in the corner.

A dining table was nearest to it, therefore pushing a chair into that corner and holding a figure. It looked like a very thin and pale body, wrapped in a very dark, very big and very unnerving cloak, the hood was vieled over the figure's head so perfectly so that she could not see him all too well. The crooked sitting position he was in and the cold look of his bony hands told Charlotte that he was an old man, but he looked far to old to be a man. And was that...smoke she was seeing coming off of him? There were very thin clouds of black emanating out from him the way a glow might radiate off the sun...if the sun were entirely black. Charlotte frowned and narrowed aher gaze at the man suspiciously. "Uh...sir?"

She didn't hear any response from the figure, or any movement. So she took a tentative step forward and tried again, this time adding that the bar was closed. When she was met with silence, Charlotte stubbornly decided not to give up on this and started to walk over to him. It smeeled as if he was in fact creating smoke somehow, but there was a strange svent to it. It tickled her jostrils slightly, but it was nit enough to distract the woman. She stopped short of his chair and she heard mumbling ever so quietly. "...quite a catch...yessssssss...quite a catch she'll make...but of the ssssssisssster...what of her...? She's not...no...not interesssting enough..."

His raspy voice would have been rather unsettling for Charlotte...if it wasn't pleasantly tiring. Her head felt light the more she looked at him, and yet there was a strange want for her to look at him. And the smoke didn't smell so strange any more...Her eyelids a bit; and she rubbed her temple. What was happening to her? "Sir...W-What are you talking about? The bar is closed. You...you have to...*yawn*..."

Charlotte almost stumbled in place, prompting her pull up the seat in front of the man and sit to try and clear her head. But the movement only made her more tired for some reason, and she could barely move as much as she wanted to.

"No...She will not do for us. I'll take care of the sissssster." His head moved only slightly, but she still couldn't see his face all too well. Not that she was trying: her focus was on trying to stay awake. "But first...your compliance will be needed, woman...

"W-What...are you d...doing to ...me...?" Charlotte slurred, her eyes now tired slits that were threatening to close. The smoke around the man slowly started to change it's direction; it no longer swirling randomly into the air and instead funneled toward the woman. The plumes of black air seeped into her nostrils the way a serpent would slither into it's den. She gasped as a pain filled her heart; it ached with an overflowing darkness, a void full of evil intentions. She was too weak to fight against it, and was consumed by it in under a few seconds. The figure sitting in front of her evaporated into nothing but a black cloak.

Charlotte suddenly stood up from her chair, looking down with a newfound interest at her hands and arms. The flicker of interest in her eyes slowly faded into the look one would have when unimpressed. The entire bar was silent for at least two minutes, until a malicious smirk pushed at her lips.

"Your form is alluring...but weak, woman...It is fully mortal and almost COMPLETELY useless..."She spoke to herself and made a confident beeline for the door. She stepped out into the streets and spotted the large castle in the distance. "Using your body as my puppet is nothing...at least, nothing compared to what controlling _The Queen's_ will feel like..."

A shrill cackle filled the crispy night air.

* * *

The thinnest streaks of light pierced through her windows, breaking Elsa from her thoughts. She blinked as rapidly as a hummingbird's wings, raising a single hand to try and shield her pupils from the glow nearly blinding her. On accident, a slope of ice rose into the air and blocked the sunlight from entering. Seeing the huge object she created, she half sighed and half yawned quietly whilst using the back of her hand to rub at her eyes. She felt her hand moisten; apparently her tears hadn't dried up just yet. The silvery blonde sat up in bed slowly, wincing at the light aches in her body and stooping to rest against the bedpost.

It was just another sleepless night for The Queen; another eight hours of her lying awake in bed and keeping her own thoughts company. She _had_ to be with her thoughts because she was too afraid to fall asleep after the nightmare. It was horrific for her already troubled mind; vivid visions of her curse causing untold destruction against her will, the sight of a sword shattering the ice statue that was once her sister. She had been stabbed by the same sword once for every nightmare she had over the last two nights, but she knew that her true pain was in Anna's death. Elsa had almost woken up screaming the first night she had the nightmare and had only just managed to cry herself back to sleep before the nightmare returned again. She hadn't dared to sleep since, for fear of seeing those horrible things once more.

Groggily, the woman left her bed and frowned at her tight muscles pulling with each walk she took; her feet still hurt from all the running she did. But sure enough she carried herself over to the large mirror in her room before she pulled out the stool and sat down in it to rest. When she looked up again, Elsa slowly recognized the persona staring back at her in the mirror. This person had a long slender neck, a perfectly curved face and nose, huge bloodshot blue eyes as well as a longing expression. Her eyelids were drooped dangerously, almost masking the sight of the dark circles around her eyes; they were easy to see against her pale skin. She continued to evaluate herself, going so far as scan the rest of her body. Elsa had curves in many places, but she was noticeably thinner usual and looked incredibly weak. After all, she had eaten sparingly when she returned to her home in the castle and found no motivation to eat any more. Yet, Elsa felt a desire to eat something for breakfast. And so she got up from her stool without a word and made her way out to the door.

She hardly noticed that she had forgotten her slippers, feeling the carpeted floor beneath her toes. What she did notice immediately was a tall figure walking down the hallway with a block of ice under his arm. She peered at him as he closer; slowly recognizing his face. He, on the other hand, recognized her immediately and showed this by giving a nervous gasp. "Q-Queen Elsa?!"

Yep, it was Kristoff. She remembered Anna first pulling her aside and introducing her to the man, who she couldn't help but thank enough for bringing Anna to safety as he saw fit at the time. Elsa hadn't spoken to him for very long, but he seemed nice enough in her mind...a bit of an idiot, but still a nice man altogether. "...G-Good morning, Kristoff."

The man swallowed and rubbed the back if his head, as if he were talking to someone important. She wished that were so. "Oh! Good morning me? Well of course me! Who else is Kristoff?! Heh heh...It is a good morning! I'm glad to see you're up. I was just going to try waking you..."

Elsa's brow furrowed at his statement while she tilted her head. "Wake me? Wake me for what?"

"Well, Anna.." He smiled at her name, and she half smirked. She never met anyone who lobed Anna too, aside from her late parents...this might slight entertainment for her. "Sh-She told me to wake you up. She had breakfast for you."

"Ah...I see." Elsa nodded, and before any awkward silence could be had she began to walk past him. "Thank you, Kristoff. Perhaps we could use that ice too?"

"Oh, uh Sure! It's no problem for you to have it." He smiled bashfully, and walked with her back down the stairs.

* * *

Anna was quite pleased with how she'd set things up at the dinner table; the breakfast was a bit more spectacular than she imagined it to be. There were serving plates and then regular porcelain plates for two people, and those two plates had a napkin in it along with silverware. The serving plates had small heaps of sausage patties, pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon strips. She'd poured a glass of strawberry milk for herself, and a glass of chocolate milk for her guest to be. She heard footsteps nearing the kitchen and looked up expectantly.

 _Ah, there's my Big sister..._ Anna clasped her hands softly as she saw Elsa lumber in slowly, making a beeline for the princess. _oooh...and there's_ _Kristoff_ _...WAIT! Snap out of it Anna!_ Anna shook her head to clear her thoughts of manly blonde boyfriends.

"Good morning Anna..." Elsa greeted her with a tired grin when she was close enough. The bags under her sister's eyes didn't settle well with Anna, but she didn't saying as she looked over the food. "What's all this?"

"Our breakfast, Silly Goose!" Was the proud response, along with a gesture to the chocolate milk glass. "And your beverage."

"Oh...you made this all yourself?"

"Every last bit of it!"

"You're more of a talent than I took ya for Anna! I'll have to get a bite sometime." Kristoff gestured to the clock above the cupboard. "Unfortunately, I have to get to a specific house for their Ice delivery...Uh, where should I put the one I have now your Majesty?"

Elsa raised her left hand, spacing her index finger and her thumb apart just barely. As she spaced them more, the ice in Kristoff's arms slowly melted into a swirl of crystalline air that slithered into the palm of the Queen's hand. When it had all gone, Elsa nodded at him with a content smile. "There. Thank you for the ice, Kristoff."

"Wow." The ice man looked pleasantly surprised by her ability. "That's convenient."

Anna raised her hands as if presenting a title to them. "Yep! Elsa: The walking Refrigerator!"

The three of them chuckled briefly, and Kristoff gave them a final nod. "It was nice talking with you, Queen Elsa."

"And to you too. Take care." Elsa said warmly.

"Goodbye, Anna!" He smiled at her in the loving way that he usually did, walking backwards. "Love you!"

"Love you too!" Anna kissed the palms of her fingers and blew on the towards Kristoff. He pretended to catch her kiss and hold towards his heart. When he'd dissapeared, Anna all but swooned while she sat down. "*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*...He's so dreamy."

"Is he now?" The blonde sat down as well, eyeing the food with obvious interest. Anna wondered briefly if Elsa wasn't so sure about Kristoff after Hans. Did she think he could be trusted to love her?

"Mmmmhmm...So..." When Elsa grabbed her own selection of food, Anna did the same and immediately began eating her bacon like nobody's business. "Uh, How did you sleep last night...?"

Elsa's smile completely dissapeared from her face, eating her food in serious silence now. She blinked a few times before clearing throat and forcing a new smile up. "...*ahem* I slept very well, actually. How did you sleep?"

"I slept pretty good..." Anna raised an eyebrow at her as suspiciously as a Detective...as suspiciously as a Detective drinking strawberry milk could look. "Although I was awake a few times. I kinda listened to sounds and stuff like when I was awake. I could hear you next door...crying..."

She watched the forced small slowly, and soon After Elsa's gaze did the same. Frowning, Anna slowly reached across the table and comfortingly squeezed Elsa's hand. "I know you might not wanna talk about it...so I won't. But I want you to know: _We're Sisters._ I would tell you anything if I thought that just maybe, you could make me feel better..."

The princess went back to eating and looked down at her plate in silence. Surprisingly as she expected, The silence from her sister was very short lived. "...okay, okay...you got me. I had a nightmare."

"It wasn't that hard to figure it out." Anna gave her a knowing smirk to Elsa, chewing thoughtfully on the cheesy eggs before her smile fell into seriousness. "And...how bad was it...?"

"I..." The monarch shrugged as best as she could. "I...I-I've been trying not to sleep since I came back to Arendelle, because that was when the nightmare began."

"Oh..."The response sounded all too pitying for Anna's taste, but luckily she had something to add to that. "Wait...That was two days ago..."

Elsa nodded in agreement with this and sighed over her food. A light frost enveloped her meal, but the princess knew that cold never bothered her anyways. "I know...And yes:I haven't slept much at all over the past two nights, and the night after I f-forced you out of the ice palace...I just...I-I can't risk it."

Anna didn't know if she wanted Elsa to reveal what the nightmares were about because it would only remind her how helpless she was when it came to consoling. However she did have another question that might be linked to the nightmares. Perhaps her speaking about it would help? "You'll be weak without your rest, you know that right?"

She didn't respond, but Elsa knew.

"...This is probably gonna make our breakfast a bit more saddening and all..." Anna cracked a grin, and Elsa looked as if she wanted to smile so badly but couldn't. The pigtailed woman breathed in and sighed before she spoke seriously. "I, uh, I-I can't really remember what happened all those years ago...I can't remember what started this...but you can obviously remember it quite well. Not saying that you remember too much and you're weird...which you are! But in a good way! It's a really good weird, like when...I'm talking too much, aren't I?"

"It's fine." Her sister offered a sleepy smile. "Your voice is...comforting."

After blushing deeply, the question was finally brought to light. "Aww, really? Thanks, sis...So, um, anyways...Do you want to talk about what happened to me? I understand if you don't want to...but I just kinda like, wanna know what actually happened. Yknow?"

The Queen shrugged and poked at her eggs with her fork, silently searching for words to begin with. Anna waited patiently in her seat, hands folded in her lap. "I...I suppose I-It all started as soon as dawn broke...I was asleep at the time, but you were...well, a lot more energetic than you are now."

* * *

The night had passed over the kingdom, but the darkness had remained where it was mostly. The darkish blue of the sky had a lighter tint to it now, signaling the coming return of the sun in the sky. But this was all but unknown to a very small body snuggled under the warmest blankets and sleeping with quiet shores. Platinum blonde hair was wildly pain about in the pillow as the little girl continued to sleep through the first light if dawn. If anything, she only snuggled her pillow a bit more within her dreams, seeing it as a fluffy white bear in her mind. And in her mind there were no sudden-interruptions unlike the real world. Interruptions in the real world involved being pounced upon by a smaller body than yours, and notably more energetic.

"Psssst! Big Sis! Psssssssst! Elsa? Can you hear me?"

She groaned and opened one eye to glare at her little redhead sister, who couldn't have cared less about that. In fact, The younger girl merely smiled back at her sibling with gleaming blue eyes and hopped on the older girl's body.

"Elsa! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" The girl squealed.

"Anna, I'm too tireeed to wake uuup..." Elsa buried her face in the pillow and pretended to be asleep after one final statement: "Go back to sleeeeep..."

The toddler exasperatedly flopped on her sister and promptly knocked the wind out of Elsa, holding a hand to her head like she'd seen in those picture book.. "But I Caaan't! I just CANT! The _SKY_ is awake, so _I'M_ awake! So we have to plaaaay!"

Although she smiled a bit wider,Elsa shut her eyes and shoved her sister off onto the floor, trying to ignore the sun rising and her little sister. Both seemed impossible at the time."Go play by yourself!

Silence reigned over the room for fifteen seconds, and the oldest princess' eyes drooped tiredly at the same rate her smile fel. It wa she began to drift back into sleep, Anna leaped back up ,reached down and opened an eyelid, smiling widely at her sister. At this point, Elsa gave up on sleeping and smiled back at Anna, who asked:

"Do you wanna build a snowman?"

...

"comeoncomeoncomeoncomeooooon!" Anna spoke rapidly, and half dragged her sister down the stairs to the Throne room. It was quite astonishing to see a little girl with such tiny legs travel downwards at her rate, and almost impossible at that."You're so slow!"

"Sh! We'll be caught!' Elsa giggled and followed her there. As they made it, the two giggled excitedly and sat on their knees close to each other with gigantic smiles.

"Do the magic! Do the magic!" Anna squealed happily, bouncing a bit. Elsa giggled, and rotated her hands round each other as a blue formed in between. She smiled down at her little sibling, thrilled by her enthusiasm. She was always happy to entertain Anna; someythung about the look on her face always made itself the highlight of Elsa's day.

"Are you ready, Anna?'

Anna's nodding almost moved too fast for her to catch.

"Okay!" Elsa thrust her little hands in the air and threw up a cloud of snowflakes into the cieling. These snowflakes didved amongst themselves, eventually becoming a slow precipitation of snow that gently fell back down on the little redhead who bounced around with ever growing happiness. She tried catching some on her tounge, squealing at how the snowflakes melted rapidly.

"THIS IS AMAZING!" Anna excitedly giggly running around a rather pleased Elsa. Desiring a bit more of her sister's happiness, Elsa eventually stopped her and spoke as if she were telling a secret.

"watch this, Anna!"

With a tiny step, ice spread out on the floor and Anna began to slide slowly, making the redhead laugh all the more. Soon, they had a snowy play ground, complete with snowdrifts and moderate air temperature. The sisters began to roll up large snowballs into odd shapes and stack them on one another until a snowman was standing in front of them. They quickly raced outside to fetch twigs for arms, into the fireplace for coal and lastly into the kitchen for carrots. Anna sat in the Queen's throne and watched happily as Elsa hid behind the now completed snowman and puppeteered it.

"Hi! I'm Olaf!' Elsa said with as deep a voice that she could muster, and wiggled the stick arms randomly in the air. Behind the snowman's head, she was very eagerly awaiting her sister's reaction to this . "And I like warm hugs!"

Anna pounced from the throne and hugged the snowman as if she hugging a plush toy. "I love you Olaf!"

Elsa gasped slightly when Anna tackled her next, nuzzling her pinchable cheeks with her cold skin. Her tiny arms could barely get around Elsa, but to her...the hug meant the world to her. "But I live you more, Elsa! You're the best! And don't let anyone else tell you otherwise!"

"Heh...I won't." Was the agreeing reply.

Next, they rode Olaf as Elsa pushed them around with her magic winds that propelled them across the icy floor. Then, she built a snowslide for the two of them, and they screamed happily all the way down: the smallest in front and biggest in back. Anna went high in the air from that, and landed in a snowdrift. She reappeared soon after and leaped off of it, while Elsa created a pile of snow to catch her.

"ooh! I got you now!" Elsa pretended to be a witch as she created piles for Anna to safely land in, one after the other.

"Yeah! Faster! Faster!" Anna squealed, starting charge from each pile and into the air. Commanded by a competive smirk, more snow piles started to arise where the little princess intended to leap. She herself was spurred into determination by this movement, and started rushing and bounding as fast as she could over snow piles. Elsa's smile slowly started to disappear, replaced by a worrying frown that didn't foreshadow well with her shaking hands.

"A-Anna! Stop! Slow down!" Elsa quickly commanded, but Anna continued to happily run and leap in the air. Elsa unknowingly made the piles higher and higher until it was too late when she noticed. Anna lept off the highest one when Elsa slipped on the floor on fell on her back. Anna continued falling towards a snowpile Elsa hadn't noticed. In her mind, Anna was going to fall to the floor and hurt herself...the last thing she wanted was to hurt her sister. "Anna!"

Thanks to that, The blonde gasped with horror and flicked her hand towards her falling sister to save her. Pure ice magic shot out and made a beeline for the little girl. The beam of energy made a crackling noise and struck her sister's forehead with the force of a horse batting an apple.

Anna, save for a twitch and a pained gasp, went limp in midair and slid from the pile to her sister's feet. Elsa gasped again and knelt down to shake her limp sister, her eyes watering when she felt her cold skin. "A-Anna?! Anna are you okay?! Anna?!"

A streak of her sister's cherry red hair flashed slowly into pure white. When this happened, Elsa truly felt fear seep into her. She bit bottom lip to muffle a scream she wanted to let out; her heart beat faster than it ever had before. The walls started to freeze up, the snowflakes ceased their falling and the snowman crumbled away from her emotions changing. During this, the older girl hugged her practically lifeless body, completely unsure of what to do. The frustration and sadness reached the breaking point, forcing pitiful sibs to escape her while she tried to speak to the unresponsive child. "I-Its...I-I-Its okay, Anna...! I-I've got you!...I-I've got you..."

Elsa looked up briefly, and took notice of the things changing around her. As a child would, she grew frightened and more unsure of what to do...so she did the only thing she knew would help.

"M-MOOOOMMA! _!_! PAPAAAAAA! _!_!" She screamed, closing her eyes. Not many moments later, The king and Queen immediately burst through the doors and rushed towards the two little girls.

"Elsa!' The king exclaimed in shock, skidding to halt close to his daughters "What have you done? This is getting out of hand!"

"It was an accident!" Elsa sobbed louder at these words and hugged her sibling tightly. As much as she wanted her to hug back, her body just didnt mive an inch. "I-I'm so sorry, Anna! I didn't m-mean to do t-this to you!"

The queen rested her hand against Anna's forehead when she held her limp daughter. She looked up towards her husband with a fearful gasp. "She's...she's ice cold!"

"N-No!...I...I-I k-killed her?!" Elsa cried in horror. She thought this was some terrible nightmare that she'd fallen into, that this was something she'd wake up to screaming.

The Queen pulled Elsa in close, trying to calm her down as much as she could.

"Noooo, No Sweety...You d-didnt kill her..." But she was uncertain herself about Anna's condition. She looked up at the king. "What are we going to do...?"

"...I know where we must go." The King said.

* * *

Elsa had all but cried herself out, hugging her mother's arm tightly as she was carried on horseback alongside her father. They traveled into the woods that skirted Arendelle, racing past the north mountain as fast as they could. As they entered a sort of valley filled with large moss covered boulders, Elsa looked over at her still unmoving sister and tore her eyes away from her.

"Please! Help us!" The king called out to the darkness, dismounting from his horse and Carrying Anna. The Queen did the same with Elsa. "it's my daughter!"

The field if boulder suddenly shook, then rolled forward and stood on hind legs as a regular person would. The trolls gathered around The cery worried parents, the limp young princess and the older crying princess with ice spreading out from her feet. One of them, who seemed and was older and wiser than them all stepped forth towards Anna and felt her head. This onew had aged hair of grass, a stance like that of an old man and a cloak made of things from nature: not moss and leaves and trees roots and dirt. Look towards them, He sighed.

"You are so very lucky, your majesties..." Pabbie turned his attention to Elsa, gently feeling her cold hands. The little girl hardly noticed this, she was too busy looking at Anna."...born with the powers or cursed?"

"B-born!" The king answered, nervously.

"Ah, I see...This is good...Yes...You are lucky it was not her heart that was hit. The heart can never be changed...but the head can be persuaded otherwise." The old troll spoke, his voice having the slightest hint of mirth in it.

"Do what you must..." The Queen spoke on the verge of tears, bringing Anna's body toward him.

Pabbie placed a rocky hand on Anna's head and lifted it slowly, taking a purple mist from her as well. The royal family watched astonished as the smoke displayed all of the fun times Anna had with Elsa, like building snowmen and skating. The older sister paled at these things; they reminded if the times she could never experience again if Anna was dead. And she would never forgive herself for that.

"I shall remove every trace of her power from her mind...and sadly, even memories. But, I leave her fun..." Pabbie brushed his hand on her head and smiled. "There. She will be fine..."

"...B-but...But she won't r-remember I-I have p-powers?" Elsa timidly asked. It was afrightening thought to her, since Anna got so much hapoiness from knowing she had a family member with such an abililty.

"It's...It's for the best Elsa..." The King sadly told her. Elsa sniffled quietly as Pabbie created blue smoke and looked at her..

"Listen to me..Elsa...your power will only grow...There is beauty in it..." The smoke showed what could only be guessed as a silouhette of Elsa in the future using her powers to create beautiful sculptures for the entirety of Arendelle to see. Then, the smoke turned red and the siluohette was crying and running in terror, while her sculptures grew into sharp objects that hurt or frightened her subjects."...But there is also...great _Danger!"_

Elsa gasped and whimpered at the sight of what was shown to her. Pabbie turned back to her solemnly. "You must learn to control this strong power within...You must not let your emotions do the work for you...Remember, Elsa...Fear will be your enemy."

* * *

Anna wished she hadn't asked about what happened, because now she was feeling terribly sad. She knew that it was normal and expectant of her to be sad about this, but Anna hated the feeling of sadness. The young woman knew she'd had enough sadness in her life; anymore and she'd just...do something terrible. And Elsa looked worse than she felt, which meant that what her sister was truly feeling about the memories was too painful to imagine.

"But I didn't...I d-didnt do _anything_..." Elsa continued, and paused to swallow. "I didn't do what he said; I did the opposite...I was just too scared to heed his warning...and...a-and I let fear govern what I did every day for those terrible years."

She looked at Anna, and the princess felt a bit sick at seeing the apologetic look in Elsa's eyes. Why did she have to feel guilty about this? It wasn't her fault that this happened to them...not one but.

"I was afraid to hurt you again, but I couldn't leave Arendelle...I didn't want to stay and...and torture you by never talking to you again, by just walking past you every day and never answering the door. Every time you knocked, every second you came and talked to me...I-I wanted nothing more than to open the door and invite you in and feel your warm hug at least one more time. But I never thought that one warm hug would be worth the risk... _Im sorry, Anna."_

Elsa slowly hugged her sides; something she often did when stressed.

"I was such a fool back then for not listening...and it cost you so much for it." Her voice began to crack. "I'm so sorry...I-I know th-that you couldn't forgive me for th-this...but I am truly sorry-"

"Okay, Stop. Please, just...Just _please_ stop." Anna pleaded, reaching a wiping away s tear trying to escape from her own eyes. "You're not supposed to be apologizing for this...If anyone should, it's me. I'm the one who pushed you too far with your abilities."

Elsa didn't look pleased that Anna criticised her apology. "B-But you were only a child-"

"So you were you! " Anna interrupted, and at that statement she received no response. The princess knew that she had none. "And even if you were a hundred and fifty you'd still be human! We all make mistakes... I've made a whole lot in my life! I almost married a dirtbag, Elsa! A side burned piece of lying, filthy, betraying trash! You never got that close, right?"

The Queen nodded eventually when she realized it wasn't rhetorical, but added. "If I hadn't been so stupid you wouldn't have tried suddenly living someone."

Anna sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose ever so slightly. Elsa was about as stubborn as a mule(no offense to her) and made herself to be as guilty as a criminal in court. Eventually the princess decided that she wanted this guilty feeling Elsa had to go away as quickly as possible. "Okay...I could argue with you for the next few hours...or...I could accept your apology- your UNECESSARY apology."

While there were no physical signs of content from Elsa, her eyes showed it clearly. It was small, but she was content. "I'm...I'm glad. That's...that's good. That's great..."

"*sigh*...buuuuuuut?"

"...you've forgiven me for that...but what about Arendelle? All the people I've hurt, I still have to apologize to them for that..."

Anna's jaw almost dropped at the words, but she instead gave a small gasp. This was not good at all; what had happened to Elsa was not good at all...it was a problem as old as time, and with all the warning signs and facial expressions and sleep problems Anna questioned how she didn't see it before. "Oh no...Oh n-no..."

At the sound of her quivering voice, Elsa scanned her sister's face with the attention an artist would have for a painting. "What is it? W-Whats wrong?"

"...you're Depressed...Like serious depression. Like, CLINICAL depression." Anna finally said, watching The monarch's eyes widen. But it was true, she had displayed the signs of depression ever since she returned and Anna hadn't played attention to them. She didn't pay attention to the way she blamed herself for everything until now, nor the way she was timid around others besides Anna, nor the problems she had with sleeping as late. "I don't even know how I didn't know this...I mean, look at you: beating yourself up over problems you couldn't control!"

"Depressed...? I suppose I can say I feel depressed without a doubt." Elsa spoke in an embsrassed fashion as if ashamed of how often she felt depressed. The subject distracted her from her making an argument against her uncontrollable problems it seemed."It's just... I don't know what i would do about it at the moment...Where would I begin to solve a problem as large as...this?"

At this, Anna mulled over her thoughts that surfaced in her head. She was no doctor and no physiatrist, but she had an idea or two of what could be done for the Queen. They had to move fast though;save some daylight for later. The princess stood up her chair and placed her hands on her hips confidently. The action gave Elsa the slightest notion that she had a plan up her sleeve, so she swallowed nervously in preparation.

"Elsa, I think it's time you visited town." Anna smirked.

* * *

 **Hey! Thanks for the reviews guys! I hope to see more reviews soon, probably to help me develop the villain ibn this story too. I hope to make him a character we live to hate...and not the opposite.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **P.S. There's a Frozen Fever reference in there.**


	3. Saved by Act of True Love

"A-Anna do we have to do this?!" Elsa squeaked, insistently pulling her arm while it was trapped in Anna's grasp.

"Of course! You haven't really connected with your people, Big Sis! A Queen must know her subjects after all; it's part of the job. It's also the Princess's job, but I've done that already! I know fourteen Arendelle citizens so far, so you have to beat my record!"

"Record?! There's no such...Okay, fine. It's a record. " She managed to stop themselves by gripping part of the stairs that they passed on the way to the front door. Anna gave her an impatient look. "But seriously...In case you can't remember, there have been two riots in the courtyard! Just imagine what could happen to us if we walked out there."

"In case you can't remember, I punched a scum-sucker of a prince off a boat. Just imagine what could happen with:" Anna raised her left arm and flexed her scrawny bicep. "Mr. Knucklesandwhich,"Then she flexed the right arm. "And Ms. Backhand! They're dating too."

"Be serious for a moment! I don't want to see you hurt..." Elsa tried in a pleading tone. Anna raised her eyebrow casually.

"Ah-Ah-Aaaah! Who walked up a mountain for you...?"

"...you."

"And who wouldn't give a darn if she got hurt over her sister...?"

Elsa felt her face slowly mold into pure chagrin, but she did answer her question after some time of reluctance. "...you."

"Aaaaaand who wants to help her sister get back to her old self?"

"You..."

"And who is going to walk with me down to the town because I asked nicely?"

*sigh*...Me."

"Exactly!" Anna giggled into her palm and opened the front forcefully, stepping out and motioning for the Queen to follow her outside. Elsa took in a worried breath and stepped outside, the bottoms of her skirt lightly scraping against the concrete squaring while the bright light of day briefly blinded her. It was a short walk from there out of the courtyards and into the town. Anna smiled a cheeky grin at her sister as she shimmied past fast moving people doing multiples jobs. Elsa almost got hit over the head with a huge beam that belong to a sofa that someone must have ordered in pieces, and had to duck while she huugged herself softly. "Now THIS is exciting!"

"Excuse me...pardon me, sir...p-pardon me..." Elsa murmured, politely dodging the random groups of people walking around and trying subconsciously to make herself appear as small as possible. She winced at a few stares she got; the way their gaze seemed so scornful and negative. She had only herself to blame for those looks. "How long will it take for you find these citizens you know?"

"Do you really think I'll know who's where just by thinking about it?" Anna rolled her eyes, and hopped over a dog on a leash. Elsa cautiously drifted around the yipping thing and continued to follow."No, no...What we would need to know is what our pals are up to right now! A wolf and it's tracks are never far apart, yknow."

She almost stopped and stared at the young redhead. "...No offense, But you sound like a crazy old man right now. You know that, right?"

"I'm a crazy old man of Wisdom, Elsa! A fool of wisdom!" Anna shrugged sarcastically, and unknowingly backed up into the back of a rather burly man. "Oops! Sorry about that mister! Guess I was too occupied with talking to notice you there..."

From the glare the short tempered man sent to the small princess, it seemed that Sorry wouldnt make things better. "You'd better watch yer step next time, girl."

Despite her personal dislike against showing any signs of violence towards people, Elsa took in the man's hard tone and slowly glared. "She said sorry. Perhaps you should do the same before..."

He towered over her instantly, and Elsa's proctiveness instantly vanished in a puff of smoke. She compared the two of them with a slight whimper: he was tall and looked able enough to snap a thick tree branch, and she was a skinny frame that was barely two inches taller than Anna."Before you'll what?"

"I...uh..." The monarch swallowed nervously, practically making another whimpering sound. Anna stopped in between the two as fast as a lightening streak and pointed at her clothing.

"What she means to say is that this is royal clothing, which means we're the Queen and Princess! So I'd start running off if I were you, who knows how many guards are waiting to leap out at you." Anna pointed at him threateningly and shoved her way past his large form while Elsa was dragged along. The man cast them a disgusted sneer.

"Why do that...she should freeze the place all over again. Mess up more lives." Was all that was muttered before he lumbered away into the distance. If looks could kill, Anna might have been a murderer at that moment.

"What a jerk..." The princess murmured, daring to give Elsa a glance. The Queen looked just as she expected: Ashamed of herself. Anna sighed and rested a hand on her shoulder as lovingly as possible. "Don't listen to him, Elsa-"

"How can I not?" The Queen asked bitterly and stared at the ground. "How can I ignore something that true...?"

"*sigh*...You're saying this like had you a choice in all this! You didn't purposely do anything...This is actually one of the symptoms of...yknow. Blaming yourself for things you had no control over.

Elsa wanted to argue that the way to control herself was so simple that she might as well have done those things on purpose, but she knew that Anna would be stubborn about it. Mentally, she decided to agree with her sister for now if she couldn't understand things...but she did have a question. "How exactly do you know...anything concerning medical work?"

"I love books. I loved them a whole lot when I was younger and I was in my room." Anna casually looked around with a shrug. "I guess I read a lot books over physical and mental stuff, but I...Hey! There's one of my friends!"

Elsa looked in the direction Anna was smiling and spotted a large horse-pulled cart, with a huge carrier with eight pigs and an unknown number of chickens. Before the queen could think anything of this, she was pulled over to the cart and the cheerful voice of her sibling greeted a slightly lanky farmer, his well dressed wife and a small pink faced child cradled in her arms. "Hi, Mr and Mrs Voltserg!"

"Ah, Princess Anna!" The woman smiled, and Elsa blinked at the tone of her voice. It was almost as cheerful as Anna's was, if not slightly tired by something. Perhaps it was her child? "And I see you're accompanied by your sister! You're looking quite lively today, your majesty."

Her cheeks turned pink from the compliment; she'd never truly been told anything like that from anyone except her sister. While she hadn't been verbally abused so much aside from the coronation, it often felt like she she'd endured that for most of her life. And to make things a bit more confusing for Elsa, this was the first time that she'd been complimented on her physical appearance. Did she really think of herself as beautiful? No, but at least someone else thought such a nice thing about her. "O-Oh...Th-Thank you Ma'am."

"It's good thing you came when you did." Mr Voltserg smiled at Anna and Elsa, gesturing the items he had just behind him. "We were on our way to sell the rest of the livestock."

Anna cringed as if she suddenly remembered something about them, and Elsa curiously looked at the Farmer. "E-Excuse me, but what d-do you mean b-by that? I'm n-not assuming anything, b-but shouldn't y-you be selling c-crops?"

The couple exchanged unsure looks with Anna, before the princess looked towards Elsa sympathetically. The Queen slowly put two and two together when she thought about their choice words of 'rest of our livestock' and then about her kingdom freezing over only three days ago. A sad sigh went up from her lips. "Oh...Y-Your crops died because o-of me...didn't th-they?"

"It wasn't your fault, dear." Mrs Voltserg assured her as best as she could try. The baby must've made a quiet sound that Elsa didn't catch, because she looked down at her child for half a minute. "The princess explained to us what really happened with you. We all have times of stress that can cause things we can't control...it just happens."

Her husband nodded in agreement. "The only thing we can do from a point like that is just to...help ourselves get back up and get help. That way it never happens again, and you're not alone during the upcoming times of hardship."

Elsa hugged her sides pathetically, bringing herself to look up at them and nod. "I understand...E-Even so...I want y-you to keep your l-livestock. I p-plan to send a reasonable s-sum of money to your living space."

"Your Majesty!" looked surprised by this, and perhaps a bit uncertain. Her husband looked exactly the same. "That's very kind of you, but it's unnecessary..."

"P-Please, I insist." Elsa smiled softly st them, hoping that they would take the offer. The last thing she wanted was to JUST apologize to these two kind people, and even paying them seemed too little of her to give. "It's th-the least I-I can do for y-you."

"Psssst!" Anna whispered loudly to them, which Elsa soon realized was her joking around. "Chances are she's stubborn so she'll keep insisting it! Might as well just take it!"

Elsa rolled her eyes, but didn't miss the shrug the couple gave each other before looked towards her. "Well...We would have been fine by selling the livestock...but I suppose there's no harm in this, right?"

"HEEEEEELP!"

* * *

Anna saw the person who's voice had called for help, a middle aged man with the most eccentric moustache and chef's outfit she'd ever seen in her life. He skidded to a halt in front of Elsa in order to avoid running into her by accident. He anxiously began to throw an obvious question at her: "you're The Queen, yes?"

She watched her sister frown at him, probably because of the Italian accent. "I-I am. I-Im the Q-Queen."

"Is it true that you have-ah power over ice?!"

With a mixture of embarrassment and shyness, She nodded. The chef looked a bit happy at this, although it was clear he was still worried about whatever was worrying him. He pointed off the distance, where Anna noticed with a gasp that a large cloud of smoke was rising up into the sky. "My ah-bakery! She's on-ah fire! You have to ah-help put it out, please!"

Elsa fell into a stunned silence, but she pulled herself out enough to shake her head at him. "N-No, I can't -"

"Elsa, you should do it." Anna immediately encouraged and did an imitation of Elsa swattting ice at a horse. "It wouldn't be that hard! Just a bit of ice here and there!"

"But I could hurt someone near me! Or I could make things worse!"

"Has she had experience with putting out fires?" Mrs. Voltserg asked curiously, rocking the bundle in her arms when she noticed that the yells for help had awoken her child. Anna briefly let herself think and talk a bit too much after the question.

"Well, no. In fact, I don't think she's ever seen a fire! Well, unless you count a firepla...D'oh! That's not the point! " The princess gripped Elsa by her shoulders and lightly shook her. "You can forget the ice! Why don't you just use a cold wind, like from a small blizzard?!"

"I'm not sure-"

"Pleeeeease try? For the nice Baker? For me? You can't be afraid again you know! Fear will be your enemy, like you said!"

Elsa bit her bottom lip, looked at the four souls that gave her hopeful stares and finally sucked in a deep breath. Without a word, she rushed towards the smoke and weaved around various bodies that had stopped to look at the growing fire, making Anna gasp with surprise. She was reminded once again of how fast her sister could move when she wanted to.

"Hey! ELSA WAIT UP!" Anna raced after her alongside the chef, who was gripping his hat after it almost slid off his head. She looked back at Mr. and to give them a fleeting wave, which they returned. Anna turned her focus in front of her, where she quickly leaped over a couch being carried by two men. She smirked softly against the wind resistance; Anna was impressed by her own speed and agility. She didn't have much time to be impressed of course, because Elsa had slowed to a halt in front of the burning building and Anna just barely crashed into her sister. "Yikes! Sorry!"

Elsa, as if she had been thinking too deeply about things shrieked in surprise before giving her a stern look and returning her attention to the fire. The princess too found herself staring at the large flowering wisps of orange and yellow. She discovered her sister's cold hand by gripping it with her own and she felt it instinctively grip back. "I'll right behind you with the chef guy. Remember: Love will Thaw."

There was a calm sigh and a quick nod, before Anna reluctantly stepped back next to the nervous baker. Looking around brought her to the attention of the town's citizens gathered around in a wide circle and the curious stares that were sent.

A silently whooshing sound was heard, mixed with a distinct vibrating noise. Anna looked at Elsa, who was slightly crouching down and turning on the toes of her heels while her arms rotated around one another. She moved like a fluid, captivating the woman with how much detail she moved with and the specific mannerisms that fueled a bright glow between her spaced apart palms. She slowly thrust out her palms toward the house, turning into the coldest winds Anna had ever felt poured out into an upright funnel. The funnel circled itself violently like it was being stirred up by a giant spoon and then it surged forward towards the building, spinning in a controlled fashion into the open doorway. Once it dissappeared from sight, there was nothing in the air but breathless silence and the muffled sound of spinning.

Very slowly, everyone seemed to notice the fires dying down to small wisps of red and orange while the black smoke turned a much lighter shade. As time reached it's two minute mark, the small fires nor their illuminating glow were seen from their places outside and the smoke was now the lightest shade of red. Eventually the smoke too, disappeared completely. As if to signal the fire's death, the funnel returned out of the doorway and made a slow beeline forwards. It suddenly flipped sideways when a certain hand lifted into the air with the palm raised, and the pointed bottom of the funnel touched the palm. The funnel, in an ironic act, was soon sucked completely into the cold, feminine hand that faced it. When all was done, the hand rested.

Anna's jaw dropped. If she had looked around, everyone's jaw had dropped, Even Elsa's. The princess felt a terribly overwhelming happiness for her sister, the jaw she'd dropped closing to form a smile. The smile grew so wide it almost hurt her cheeks.

"YOU DID IT, ELSA!" Before the princess knew it, she'd hurled herself onto Elsa with the warmest hug she'd given in years. She couldn't help it; something about seeing her sibling do something so great with her abilities just made her happy for Elsa. "YOU DID IT! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU! YOU'RE THE BEST SISTER EVER!"

Aside from a brief squeal of surprise the Snow Queen showed no signs of disliking the hug, and returned one after showing a blushing smile. "Heh...H-How do I know you're n-not trying to butter me up?"

"Just know that it's true."

The two sisters flinched when a sudden roar came up from the crowd, stealing their attention from each other. The Arendelle citizens were still in the circle around them, either giving them loud appreciative claps or loud appreciative cheers. Once Anna realized what happened, she smiled again and looked over at Elsa to see her happy reaction. Only, there was no happy reaction. First she looked surprised...then she looked confused...and finally there was nothing but embarrassment. Her cheeks were flushed a dark shade of red that matched her frown and wide eyes.

"...maybe you're just not ready for crowds, huh?" Anna patted her shoulder with a soft grin while shrugging. Elsa looked at her as if she knew so much more than her. "Cmon...Even if you don't know Arendelle...at least it knows who you are and how kind you are, right?"

There was the tiniest smile ever, and then a slow nod. So, Anna placed an arm around her sister's shoulders and began to lead her through the clapping crowds. She sort of leaned into the smaller woman, and a small joke passed through her mind. "Heh...we'll really have to work on you. I'm starting to turn unto the big sister here..."

Surprising her, Elsa laughed.

* * *

Død luften was quite impressed.

The woman's body from the bar was currently crouched low on a nearby roof, eyes sadistically watching the two women below her but obviously not in control of her actions. Her hair was unruly, seeming to her appear more crazed as time passed by. She gave a low, sultry chuckle under her breath. "She's more than I was expecting...even slightly more powerful than even I can be...exciting..."

Død luften twirled a lock of the woman's hair around her own finger and watched as Elsa slowly walked back towards the castle...and that brat of a sister placed an arm around her shoulder. The woman's face contorted with a silent rage at this, and she tightened a fist so much that her fingernails made her bleed. She looked own at her hand, eventually composing herself enough to chuckle. "Oooops. I suppose you'll feel that in the morning, won't you?"

There was a silence, and her grin grew wider. "There's no time for crying woman...We have a job to do...But we must do it another the guise of night, to avoid being seen by that husband of yours...worried sick about you, he has...And as much I'd love to slit his throat, I'm suppose to fulfill an act of gratitude."

She slowly began to move herself from the roof. "Anyways, we'll visit our dear Queen then...make this Anna's last night, to top it all off."

Several citizens below could have sworn they heard a brief maniacal laughter from above.

* * *

It was 10:27 at night and Anna had successfully snuck into the kitchen like a spy, before filling two small bowls with chocolate ice cream and stabbing them with spoons. On tiptoe, she'd snuck out if the kitchen with both bowls in hand and started to walk up the stairs. She hadn't done too much with Elsa when she got back, but that grumpy Octavious shoved some papers in her hands and told her they needed to be looked over. So Anna had taken it upon herself to bring Elsa a little reward for her cool deed earlier: a bowl of ice cold chocolate ice cream and an hour of chatting. She didn't know if Elsa actually liked this kind of ice cream, but it wouldn't to see would it?

 _Creak._

Her entire body stopped moving after the sound that didn't belong to her footsteps rang out. It sounded eery, especially with the moon turning the whole castle into a very light shade of black. The princess swallowed and heard the creak again, this time taking a single step up the stairs.

"Hi, Anna!"

"WAAUGH!" She almost toppled backwards down the stairs. It was just Olaf standing at the top of the stairs and making his merry way down, smiling at her as widely as ever. If her hands were free, she would have placed a hand on her chest and felt her hummingbird heartbeat. "Olaf! Olaf, you gave me a heart attack!"

"Oops! Sorry about that." She saw his pale body shape pass her by slowly, not to mention the glow of his orange nose. "I was just gonna stand by the big window downstairs so I can watch the stars!"

"You look at stars too?" Anna smiled softly. "I'll have to join you sometime, but right now I have to see if Elsa's awake!"

"Oh, Okay! I'll see ya later, Anna!" Olaf gave one of his signature giggles and a wave that she barely saw. Anna giggled and told him goodnight, before she traveled the rest of the way up the stairs and took a right. She passed her own bedroom door and then several other doors before she heard another creak. The woman frowned and turned around.

She had stopped in front if a window, and was bathed in the light of the moon. This didn't let her see too well behind herself, just a wall of darkness.

"O-Olaf...?" Anna asked, confused with why she was stuttering. And why did she smell smoke in the air? "Olaf I-Is that you?"

There was nothing but silence for a few seconds, and then she heard a voice she didn't recognize. The sound of it's question made a chill shoot down Anna's spine.

" **Isn't it past your bedtime, little one...?"**

* * *

Elsa knew she had fallen asleep again, but that didn't mean that the nightmare didn't feel real to her. She knew that the ice pieces that once made up her sister weren't real, but they felt like reality far too much. Like a future that was inevitable even if she was in control now. It had been this same way for the last few nightmares she'd had; her surrounding by the remains of Anna while Hans raised his sword and was about to bring it down upon her head.

She sat there almost dumbly while the malicious prince grinned in satisfaction while she looked up with the same horror she'd had since the last time. As if in slow motion, the sword zipped down towards her unprotected neck almist managed to kiss her skin...

Then Hans just vanished.

There was no sign that he'd been there at all, he just seemed to dissapear and left nothing behind for Elsa to see. Truly dumbfounded, the Queen looked down at the pieces around her and saw that they too had vanished. The castle in the distance had vanished as well, which left her alone with the frozen fjord she was sitting on. Elsa stood to her feet in confusion, for this had never happened to her before.

" **Your dreams are dark you know, even for me.** "

Elsa looked up at the sky and then at her sides. The voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere. "H-Huh?!"

 **"Not to say I didn't enjoy the pieces of the princess still there or anything, but it was a real cliffhanger when that sword was about to behead you! This could end on a much more chilling note."**

"Sh...Sh-Show yourself! W-Whoever you a-are!" Elsa stammered and backed away, evein if it did nothing. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder...but it was no regular hand. It was far too cold; cold to the point where even she shuddered. Elsa yelped and jumped away, before she came face to face with the eyes of a giant snake. There was no snake head or body, just the menacing eyes placed amid the chaos of a giant smoke column. The serpentine smoke was about as tall as her, but no wider than twelve feet. Elsa gazed up at it with a horror filled look and somewhere within her, she sensed that he was smiling.

" **Greetings...My Ilusstrousss Queen.**

Elsa didn't know to say at that moment aside from: "Who a-are y-you?! _W-What_ are you?!"

The column made a sound akin to that of a dog barking with a sharp object in it's throat. She swallowed after realizing it to be laughter. " **Ah, my manners have escaped me again. I am called...Død luften. Yesss, it has meaning but is much deeper in Norwegian than you can understand**."

"Død luften...?" She repeated quietly and hugged her sides. His mere figure was fear inspiring, and it wasn't a surprise to her feel herself so...intimidated. "I-I... How did you get in here?! W-what do y-you w-want?!"

" **I came in the way a dream comes in...As for what I want...** " The cylindrical smoke wafrednitself through the air, beginning to circle her body slowly. Elsa always kept herself facing his head...but in a way didn't want to look at him. Looking at him caused a funny feeling to spread in her head. " **Its a bit of a ssstory...I was once just like yoursself, a being with an extraordinary ability and a way to use it...but I was trapped by a loathsome person in a net fused with magical properties...** "

Elsa was a but surprised to hear this from a stack of smoke. Was this proof of more people that existed out there and had powers like her? Was this one of them before her?

" **But you...when you thawed your beloved kingdom, you lifted the net off me and freed me from a life of ssolitude...and even if it was accidental, I sstill wanted to thank you.** "

Elsa had stopped moving some time ago, which only allowed the being to circle behind her. Looking at her surroundings let her know that she was trapped in a wide coil of smoke. "Y-You...you came all the w-way here t-to s-say thank you?"

" **Yesss**..." The Queen went rigid when he whispered in her ear, smelling some rather unpleasant breath. " **And No. I mosstly came here to give you proper help...you have a magnificent power within you, my Queen... But you have not used it to your limitss.** "

"...h-how do you know this...?"

 **"I have my ways...but you sssee, you've always been resstrained by something...a certain sssomeone that has held you back. How can you do anything truly powerful with her around**?"

"W-What a-are you talking about?" Elsa turned to face Død luften, who was uncomfortably close to her face.

" **Why, I'm talking about that sssisster of yours...always making you afraid of doing anything with her passst...** " A invisible hand stroked the bangs out Elsa's face and she tried moving her head away with a shudder. " **You musst rid yoursself of her...** "

"WHAT?!" Elsa all but shouted in fright. "N-No! I mean n-no offense t-to y-you a-at all but...y-you're crazy! I-I would n-never hurt A-Anna..Never...N-N-Nev..."

" **Of coursse you wouldn't..**." The woman whimpered when the coil suddenly tightened around her body, making her struggle to free her arms. She fearfully looked up at the being's head, where his serptine eyes gazed intently in her bhlue ones. " **Not without my help, that is...** "

As much as she tried, Elsa couldn't look away.

* * *

"Ow...whazza...?"

Anna shook her head from a strange level with the ground, pushing herself onto her elbows. When she got to her knees, she noticed the bowls sitting perfectly on the ground and that the ice cream wasn't out of place either. She remembered hearing that strange question from the unknown intruder and feeling incredibly tired...and then she was here.

The intruder must have gotten past her! He might be headed for Elsa!

Anna gasped at the thought and without a word sprinted down the hallway before making a sharp turn and bursting into the familiar room. With the aid of the moonlight, Anna could just make out the shape of her sister and the familiar silver hair. When she ran forward onto the Ned, she shook her sister's shoulder hard. "Hey! Elsa! Wake up!"

But it looked like Elsa was already awake, because she sharply turned her head to look at Anna and smiled. It wasn't the smile that her sister would ever have on her face; it was a more fiendish grin for some reason. But Anna didn't have time to look closer at the grin, because she noticed Elsa pointing her hand at her while it glowed a bright blue. The princess shrieked and leaped off of the bed just as a a beam of pure ice magic impaled the spot she'd just been in. Seated on the floor, She watched the monarch rise to her full height in the bed and raise her arms halfway in the air. "Elsa?! What are you doing?!"

"Oh Anna..." Elsa spoke coldly, her hands glowing faintly again to illuminate her smirk. "If only there was someone out there who loved you..."

Anna's heart almost stopped completely. Why would she say something like that, let alone try to hurt her? This wasn't the Elsa she knew at all! The woman gave her older sister a hurt look, wondering what could possibly be wrong with her? Perhaps it had something to do with her powers? If that was the case, then she needed to get Kristoff to take her to the trolls. They would know what to do, hopefully.

Narrowly dodging another attack, Anna scrambled to her feet and zoomed out of the door with Elsa hot on her heels and giggling madly. The princess wasn't going to go for the front door at first, intending to just make a beeline for the window down the opposite hallway since it was a shortcut out. As soon as she finished that though, a blue of bright blue shot past her head and exploded in front of her. Anna couldn't stop herself from running straight into the thick ice wall and falling back to the ground. She looked up at her now blocked exit before noticing her nose was in pain...and bleeding immensely.

"Aaaawww, Did I break your nose, Anna?" Elsa's body was stalking towards her slowly now, her hands glowing brighter than ever before. "My mistake. I was trying to break your NECK!"

Anna ducked under the ice blast, scrambling down the stairs as fast as a bullet in an attempt to reach the front door. Another wall blocked the huge passageway there, and another wall blocked the passage towards the back door. The woman was now trapped between the kitchen and an icy death, the space in between the two growing thin.

"N-No! Elsa, wait!" Anna spat out some of the blood that got in her mouth and tried to back up into the kitchen. She clumsily tripped over her own feet and frantically scooted backwards until she felt her shoulder blades hit the oven lid. "S-Stop! Whatever's happened to you, I can help you!"

"Help me? Teeheehee..." The Snow Queen got on her own hands and knees, practically crawling like a spider across the floor. Her eyes seemed filled with bloodlust and her was growing more scary as the distance between them closed. "You ARE helping me silly! You're helping me by dying...Just see what I can do without you on my mind...I'm all powerful!"

Anna felt very small when her sister was close to slam a palm next to her head. After shrieking, the princess whimpered at her and tried pushing against her shoulders. "E-E-Elsa...P-Please don't..."

"Oh ssssshusssshhh, Anna..." Elsa seductively whispered, dragging her fingernail along Anna's cheek. It left a distorted line of ice on her skin that stung the princess greatly, like a line of hornets jamming their stingers into her face. "This won't be _nearly_ as painful as I want it to be...but just enough..."

"Ah...O-Ow..." Anna grimaced from the pain, her eyes watering with tears when the pain intensified. "Guh... I...I-I still...love you, Elsa...I s-still d-do..."

All of a sudden, her sister frowned. She shook her lightly at first, and then did it widely while she held her head in her hands. She seethed and groaned as if she was in a great deal of pain, as if hot needles were being driven into her. "N-No! What are you doing, foolish w-woman! You do n-not need h-her...OBEY ME!"

Anna slowly put two and two together. Elsa really was being controlled! She had to help her somehow, but she was unsure of what to do. Remembering that her declaration of familial love worked somewhat, Anna leaped onto Elsa and hugged her as tightly as possible. "I know you live me too, Elsa! You can fight whatever it is! Come on!"

"NOOOOO!" Elsa tried to pull her off. "RELEASE ME, BOTH OF YOU!"

"You can do it! Force it out!" Anna barked furiously, and she felt the struggles of Elsa grow incredibly weak while the smell of smoke began to waft into the air...until it suddenly vanished along with Elsa's struggling. The princess let go and gently lifted up Elsa's head with a hand, looking over her face. Instead of any villainous expressions, Anna only saw a frightened and tearful face.

"A-Anna...? Oh my...I-I'm so s-sorry...I'm so, so sorry..." Elsa spoke quietly, wiping Anna's face of the icy residue and blood. The younger sister winced from the slight pain but managed to hug her tightly again.

"I told you before, Sis...I forgive you." Much to Anna's happiness, the only response she got was a tighter hug than her own...that and a snowman's voice randomly going:

"HEY I MADE WISH ON A SHOOTING STAaaaaaar...Did I miss something?"

* * *

She was UNBELIEVABLE! Even after he'd presented true power to the Queen by briefly controlling her, she'd still rebuffed his offers! But how and why? He'd firgured out that first question already: her magic was quickly adapting to keep him out of her system...but the whybwas still what troubled him. What could she love more than power? Love from her sister couldn't possibly be a reason to rebuff the chance for power!

It made him growl lowly from within the bar woman. He had nothing else to possess. He'd tried to possess her precious Anna, but he couldn't because she was hugging Elsa. The love within her burned him to the point of screaming.

Regardless, he was not done with them yet. Not at all.

* * *

The guards had been on high alert ever since verything had been explained to them; they'd gaurded most of the castle with swords and knives and javelins taller than a man. But Elsa still felt it wasn't enough to stop anything like that from happening again. The memory of her almost killing Anna was still fresh in her mind, replaying itself over and over. She felt so powerless as she watched her body move by his will, just she felt during the coronation and disaster and the years of isolation. Elsa wondered if she was just unlucky enough to be the center of all of these problems or if someone was just playing a cruel joke on her.

Her thoughts were broken by a loud snore annd Elsa remembered that she was bed, having stayed awake another night. She was surprised that Anna had fallen asleep after the ordeal; but not as surprised as Elsa was when her sister asked to come in her room that night. The princess should have been afraid and stayed in her own room, but Anna only put on her nightgown and hopped into Elsa's rather narrow bed. It was a slight cram, but Anna apparently though it would make things better to snuggle into Elsa's body. It was unbelievable; how much assured Elsa that it wasn't her fault.

They'd both half eaten the chocolate ice cream because it melted and ended up drinking the rest down. From there, it had been silent for the first thirty minutes before Anna's snores actually blossomed. Had Elsa not thought it was cute, she would have been annoyed by it.

Elsa eventually got an idea, leaning down to kiss her sibling's forehead. She was almost distracted by the red bandage over the bridge of her nose. "Anna...Psst. Wake up."

Baby blue eyes opened sleepily, immediately catching sight of Elsa's soft smile. Another smile was born. "Mmm...good morning, Elsa."

The Queen slowly sat up in bed, but kept her gaze on Anna's freckled face. "I-I was thinking we c-could maybe... Hang out for a while?"

"I thought we were...*yawn* ...already doing that?"

"No, I was sitting here, watching you make log cutting noises."

Anna giggled at the joke, apparently happy to see that she was making a good attitude for the day. Elsa herself hoped it remained. "Oh, you jokester you...How about we walk down by the beach?"

"This early in the morning?"

"Whaaaaat? It's light out."

* * *

They had initially tried to just walk outside on their own, but the captain of the guard quickly caught them and insisted that they should take a squadron with them. Elsa refused to have a squadron, but she eventually relented towards allowing one very young soldier follow them closely. He was possibly the youngest of their ranks: a sixteen year old man with hidden short brown hair. While they were nowhere near rude to the young gentleman, the two hardly talked to him while the traveled alongside the frothing waves. Their shoes would probably be a bit muddy later on, but they didn't show any signs of worry.

"There's a nice breeze today..." Anna began with a hopeful smirk.

Elsa nodded in agreement, but her expression warned of a different topic. "I think we should discuss...you know."

"Oh...yeah. What was that controlling you?" Anna frowned seriously her, her arms crossed over her chest. "If you know?"

In response, she swallowed quietly and hugged her sides. The memory of her breaking her sister's nose came back to her before she closed her eyes. "I...He was in my mind. He just-He w-warped my nightmares and was rambling about...about how I freed him by accident."

"That's absurd!" A scoff was mixed in with that remark. "You were nowhere him in our entire life!"

"He told me it was when I thawed Arendelle. I accidentally lifted some kind of net off of him and he was freed. He had this...delusion t-that if you were d-dead, then I could use my powers fully..."

"That doesn't make any sense! He's insane! I wish he were right in front of me so I could just..." She did an imitation of herself punching the being right in face and then kicking him in the shin. Despite herself, Elsa laughed and snorted. "And then I'd let you finish him off, Sis!"

"Hmmm!...S-Seriously though...We d-dont have anything to keep him from j-just trying again."

"What about that net he mentioned? Or maybe there's some OTHER magical object we could stop him with! All we would have to do is look into whatever book we have to in order to find that thing!"

"I don't even know here to begin."

"...The trolls? They have to know something about what's attacking us." Anna explained to her, but looked further behind herself the guard appeared to be putting a nice smooth rock in his pocket. "Uh...why are you doing that?"

As if embarrassed, the guard rubbed the back of his neck. "Er...rock collection."

"That's neat!" Anna encouraged, both to the surprise of the guard and Elsa. While the Queen wouldn't say so, she thought that rock collecting was weird. "You should get that rock over there too! It's big AND white."

The guard picked up a peculiarly shaped rock with black freckles on it, like freckles on an egg. Before Elsa could point that out to him she heard her sister gasp loudly and start to wade into the water. The Snow Queen did nothing but follow with the intent of stopping her from going in, but she saw why Anna was going in the first place.

A body was floating out from the shore.

* * *

 **Quite the long chapter, right?! I'm glad to have been able to update as soon as I could. Now to work on character development of our sisters, the villain and a few guests. Enjoy this chapter and review please.**

 **P.S. Dod Luften is a Norwegian name I made up, but it's not too threatening to me.**


	4. We finish each others sentences

"It's a kid!" Anna gasped loudly, managing to pull the body that had been afloat onto the sandy beach. Elsa had initially began to follow Anna into the water when they first saw the body, and now she was rolling her back to shore with her skirt hiked up. Anna finally pulled the body far enough away from the shore and let it gently flop onto the sand. "I-Its a kid...looks like she's sixteen, maybe?"

"Perhaps." She heard Elsa say before she got on her knees and pressed two fingers to the underside of the young woman's chin. The girl looked only a few inches shorter than Anna and Elsa, had on a strangely familiar blue dress emblazoned with designs, totally unruly/ poofy red hair and a very slightly oval shaped head. Thanks to the wet clothing, one could tell instantly that she probably hadn't eaten much in a while. That, and her left shoulder was out of place at an odd angle. "She's n-not breath-thing-g!"

Anna gasped worriedly and placed her hands on the girl's stomach, pressing down hard on the sift abdomen to try and get any of the water out. But there was no response from her at all...Maybe she needed air to go in first? "I...u-uh...I think one of us has to...'give her air'."

Had this not been a dire situation, Anna would have laughed at the strangely disgusted look on Elsa's face. "Excuse m-me?"

"You heard me! You gotta do the thing!"

"I'm n-not gonna k-kiss her!" She responded, giving the girl a sympathetic look but not moving. "That's disgusting! "

"I'm not asking you to make out with her! Just breathe into her mouth! Simple as that!"

"If it's so simple, th-then why haven't y-you done it?"

Anna opened her mouth to retort, but closed it. Elsa had a good point there, and besides: the girl didn't have time for them to be arguing over kisses of life. Her eyes nervously darted around before they fell on the young guard standing near them at the ready, as if he would run off to get aid should they say so. Elsa had noticed him too, and had since given Anna a certain look.

"...why are you both looking at me like that?" The guard asked them nervously.

Anna merely smirked and pointed a finger at the girl's thin lips that were parted ever so slightly. The guard eventually put two and two together before anyone could elaborate on his job. His face turned bright red. "With all due respect, your highness-"

"Oh come on! Just a quick, huge breath and she'll be fine! It's like a date, only you skip all of the starting stuff and get straight to the good part-"

"The p-point is: we need you t-to do this." Elsa gave him a pleading look. Anna was certain that she could have just commanded the young boy to to it, but figured that Elsa wasn't very comfortable with commands.

The guard looked down the girl hesitantly, before taking a huge swallow and walking a bit closer to her. He got on his hands and knees before reluctantly looking down at the girl's face. The guard inhaled a bit and slowly leaned down to begin breathing air into her mouth...and then she threw up on him. Anna gagged when the young girl suddenly vomited at least a pound of water and other items straight up at his face, which made him reel back while his hands slapped at his face. The girl coughed violently as if something was lodged in her throat, before throwing up again. During this, she'd sat up almost completely straight, and the guard(who'd wiped his face) was holding her up with a hand to her back.

"*wheeze*...*wheeze*..." The girl seemed to slowly become aware that she wasn't alone and turned to face the guard, who'd coincidentally ended up very close to her face. She flinched at the sudden sight of the blushing boy, before she turned towards Elsa and finally Anna. The girl shot up from the ground at a surprising speed and glared at them. "HEY! Waht's th' beg Ahdea then?! Standing arown' lahk a pack of THIEVES?!"

Anna raised an eyebrow. What kind of an accent was that?

Elsa helped herself to her feet and unintentionally seemed to tower over the girl, prompting Anna to get to her feet as well. "W-we're sorry if we frightened you ma'am-"

"I wasn't frahtened! " The girl warily kept her distance from them, her heel occasionally being touched by the ocean waves. "I was stahtled. Ets a beg difference."

"Not really, but anyways:" Anna gestured to herself with a single hand, smiling brightly to leave a good impression upon her. Not that anyone ever said that she wasn't fine to begin with. "I'm Anna! _Princess_ Anna of Arendelle as a matter of fact! I'm the gal who pulled you in from the water!"

The girl skeptically glared at her, crossing her arms the way a teen would. After all, she was a teen. "Es tha' a fact?"

"Sure is! And that astonishingly beautiful woman there:" Anna gave her sibling one of her patented smiles; topped with a loving atmosphere. As expected, Elsa smiled ever so slightly and blushed. "Is my sister: Queen Elsa of Arendelle...and that's our guard, Bob right?"

The guard, who looked entranced by the mystery girl, gave Anna an incredulous look. "Bob?"

"I'm sorry! I have terrible memory!"

"I've never even remotely given you my name!"

"Very well, then! Merida Dunbroch's mah name." The girl introduced herself after a moment of obvious distrust. "...,Well. Ah suppose Ah should thank yoo for ...thaht."

She seemed a bit ungrateful, but at least the girl actually said thank you for it. The last thing Anna wanted was a girl with a hurt shoulder that she'd saved from drowning doing nothing but walking right past her. Common courtesy is what it's called; people should use it. "You're welcome! And you'll also be welcome once we fix that huge hump in your shoulder!"

"Hump? What...oh." Merida swallowed at the sight of her shoulder, shown as a bulge in her dress. "Thaht... es a reeeeeally dislocated shoulder."

Elsa gestured back the way that the trio had cone initially and began to walk off. "Guard, l-lets get her b-back to the castle before that s-shoulder problem g-gets worse."

* * *

Anna discovered that Elsa hadn't stayed with her in the doctor's office, where a very reluctant Merida was being treated for her injuries. The princess peeked outside of the doorway, but didn't see anyone there in the hallways. She journeyed down the corridors more, passing by the windows of various places in the castle. She passed by a huge room that the castle owned and spotted familiar silvery hairfar off on the otherwise of the room and in front of a wall of books. Why would Elsa go to the library at a time like this?

"Uh, Elsa..." Anna approached her when she got inside the library. "Whatcha doin in here?"

"Hm?" The Queen looked up abruptly from a large stacked up book, apparently not expecting Anna to be there. "Oh. Anna...I was just doing some searching around. Looking for information."

"Information on...?" Anna slowly put two and two together. "Oh! That big meanie smoke guy: uh, Dude lockin?"

"Dod Luften." Elsa corrected promptly, and tugged out a heavy book with the words 'Arendellian Folklore' inscribed on the cover. "When he was...inside my head, He mentioned something about the net, remember what I told you? I'd accidentally lifted a net off of him when I thawed out Arendelle. "

Anna nodded, remembering her words on the beach. " Yep. But shouldn't we be finding out more about him than a fancy net?"

"I intend to research more on him if he's in here. But first I must find out about this 'mystical net'. He was trapped by it once before...He can certainly be trapped by it again. If we have this net then we can stop him when... _if_ he comes back."

"Oh yeah...good thinking." Anna tapped a fingernail on the book Elsa was holding and raised an eyebrow. "Folklore is a weird place to look for a net, Sis."

"Well there isn't exactly a book on nets around here." Elsa countered confidently before opening the book and skimming through it. From what Anna could see from her place in front of her, the book contained many large black/ white pictures and larger paragraphs full of descriptions and explanations. She only caught a fraction of a glimpse of a few pictures, and she spotted a familiar looking item between the flipped pages. The princess gestured for Elsa to stop and go back to the page she'd passed. It had what looked like a sort of dark red spider-web only bigger and somewhat man-made.

"What does it say about this?" She pressed a finger to the image.

"It's called the 'Bermudan ghoul snare' Embued with magical properties that entrap violent ghosts, so it says...Yes, this is the one. " Elsa frowned pathetically at Anna;in fact guiltily. "It mentions a weakness when in contact with anything of wintery origin. "

Decideding to disregard her sister's useless guilt, Ann's looked down at the picture. "So he's a ghoul or something?"

"No ordinary ghoul." Elsa peered closer at the book. "It says that legend has it the net was used on an ancient spirit that thrived off the life of any it possessed and despised love. Men with ties to mystical helpers created the net and trapped Dod Luften there."

"What kind of mystical helpers? Are they still alive? And where's the net?"

"It doesn't say anything about all your questions. Rats..." Was the frustrated response. The book was closed and tucked under her arm. "We'll just have to find out. Maybe-"

"I thought I'd find you here, your Majesty."

Anna groaned in annoyance and Elsa timidly swallowed. "O-Oh...O-Octavius. I w-wasnt expecting y-you."

"Of course not." The man spoke sharply, his usual expression still plastered to her face and his arms still folded behind his back. He nodded towards the heavy book knowingly. "You and the princess were quite distracted by your searches."

"Look, wise guy! You better not be down to pull that Queenly and Princess-ly duty stuff again! "Anna served him a freshly made Sassy glare. "In case you can't remember, we have a very life threatening ghost after us...well, Elsa! But same thing...I think. Yeah! It's... I-Its the same thing...Is it Elsa?"

Before Elsa could even give her a quizzical look she was interrupted. "As a matter of fact I was not here to criticize your time wasting, but to see how things are progressing. This ghoul is a very serious matter. I'm glad to see the two of you are handling the issue as well as you are with the limited information."

"Oh." Anna cast a quick look at her sister. "How outdated are these books anyways?"

"Most of them are actually quite recent. We only leave the books involving folklore and other such rubbish because there's nothing to update them with." Octavius explained swiftly, turning around and beginning to walk off. "In any case, I simply must he going. I wish you both good fortune in your actions."

"...Hmmm...Well, he was nicer today than before."

"I'm c-certain he means well, A-Anna...We'll have to research locations later and try them out. " Elsa gave the princess a frown after a moment or two. "Um...what would y-you like to do now?"

Anna stood straight with a start, shaking her pigtails at the sudden movement. "Uh, M-me? Oh yeah..?Uh...you wanna do something with me? Oh wait you just asked! Right. Ummmmm...I was going to go check in on Merida. See how that shoulder of hers is doing."

"Et feels like a roasted Turkey giblet thrown en a fire."

"...Eh?" The sisters saw none other than Merida herself walking into the castle library as if she didn't have a bandaged up arm. In some strangely comedic way she was carrying a small basket of apples with her injured arm and with her good hand she was holding a half eaten green apple. Elsa gave her a slightly narrowed gaze and a huge frown. "Why are you out of bed?"

"Becawz et's eeechy. An' totally uncomfortable." The redhead explained with a wry grin and took an unbelievably large bite out of the apple in her good hand, before chewing noisily on it. While Anna covered up an amused grin with her hands, Elsa raised them to dust if the saliva particles flung at her whenever Merida talked. "Ehnyways! Th' Dawctah sehs Ah shood make a swift recovery from mah arm. He also sehd tha' Arendelle wood pey fer mah...Mehdeecal Beel, whateva that means. Es that th' name-a this kingdom, then?"

"It sure is!" Anna answered happily. "Like we said: Princess Anna and Queen Elsa of Arendelle!"

"Ah riiiiiight. "Merida gazed down at the apple core she had left and tossed it into Elsa's hands. "Hold that fer me willya ma'am? Ets an interesting place! Mah castle haws awksess to better apples unfortunately, but they'll do."

Elsa held the apple core reluctantly by the stem. "Our apples aren't bad at a-"

"So, Ah guess Ah'll be stuck here fer a while...seeing as how I don have mah boat. An the dawctah sehs Ah'm naht fet ta trahvel."

Elsa raised her eyes to Merida. "You're walking perfectly fi-"

"Weth thaht en mind, Ah was hopin to request a leetle somethun to remind me of home until I get home! Do you guys have eny bows an' arrows by eny chance?"

"Bows and A-Arrows?! Th-Thats completely unladyli-"

"YOU HAVE A BOW AND ARROW?!" Anna squealed like a little girl and hopped on her feet. "That is so cool! Do you shoot anything?!"

"Do Ah shoot enything?! " Merida seemed only slightly less excited than Anna, as she wasn't jumping up and down like her and was squealing too. "Does a a whil' boar truffle truffles to truffle the groun'?!"

"Truffle the grou-"

"Oh my gooooosh! You must be great at shooting a bow and arrow! " Anna exclaimed rushing towards the door and pulling Merida along. "I wanna watch you do it! We might have some bows around here!"

"Why are you both interrupting...me?" Elsa asked, but by that time they were already out go the door. With a groan of exasperation she began to trudge out herself.

* * *

 **Sorry for the short chapter! I hope you still like it!**


	5. Don't know if I'm Elated or Sassy

"And this is Joan of Arc. She's pretty cool isn't she?"

Merida offered the deepest look of interest she could ever give to a painting, and Elsa could tell it was kinda sarcastic. But that was what it had been like for the past ten minutes; Anna happily presenting every item and dust bunny in the whole castle to their 'polite' guest that gave satisfying reactions...satisfying for Anna that is.

"She looks lahk mah grandma Estonighgle the first when she was twelve." Merida pointed out as she walked down the hallway of paintings. "Weth won arm she chawped awff th' hands of five rival kings. And a random guy in a high tunic."

"WOOOOOOOAH..." Anna gushed dreamily at that statement, her eyes wide.

"How charming." Elsa found herself saying after her sister's reaction in a sarcastic tone. It made the queen pause and think about her manners. Did she usually act like this with guests? Even if said guests seemed to be the most unladylike kid she'd ever met in her life?

"Hey, Elton!" She heard Merida say, and she looked to see the redhead pointing towards her great grandfather's bearded face on his painting. "This geezer looks like you right now; all scowlin' and wotnot!"

"One, I do NOT scowl." Elsa scowled. "T-Two, My name is not Elton. It's Elsa. And three, that GEEZER is my family member."

"That's wot ah said, Essie. Geezer."

"Do you have any other cool family members? Does your mom do cool things like what your great grandmother does?" Anna squealed before Merida could see the monarch facepalm.

"Nah, mah mother's more the type who would care about mah personal safetee more than teachin' me how to sword fight..." The girl's expression slowly fell into a somber mood. "She'd probably be fussin about my hair raght about now..."

"Do...D-Do you miss y-your home? Your mother?"

Merida turned towards Elsa when she was asked the question. Elsa knew that the kid was a little annoying, but she knew a homesick look when she saw one. Even so, it seemed that the younger of them all wasn't going to accept her homesickness. "Who, me? Pfft! Nooooo, I don't...well, obviously a little! Ah mean, Ah'm not heartless. Ah'm just not too homesick...I'll tell ya what I do miss though."

Anna tilted her head like a puppy, and her sister cringed. Why did the princess choose random times to be so cute? "Whats that?"

"Mah trusty bow an' arrow.Y'know, the one I mentioned before." She placed her hands on her hips and smiled softly. "Ah, I remember the days when I could just shoot a pigeon straight outta the' big blue."

"Uh, w-wait a minute...What? You ACTUALLY own a _weapon_ ?" Elsa looked at Merida as if she were growing a second head spontaneously. "That's impossible!"

"Well ah do."

"But p-proper women don't carry b-bows or arrows or any other weapons!"

"Blech! Yoo sound jus' lahk me mum! Doesn't Joan of arc carry a sword? And she's proper!"

"Oooh! That's a really good point right there, Sis!" Anna began, only to trail off when Elsa gave a slight glare. "I mean that is really...*ahem* that's a good one."

"Even so, she is more along t-the lines of knight! You're not a knight, from what little you've told us about yourself."

"Be that as it may, Eragon-"

"Elsa!"

"That's wot a said!" Merida stalked over to the princesses side and leaned against Anna nonchalantly. "Anyways, ah want a bow an' arrow! Ah'm willin' te bet your sistah wants to see me with a bow an' arrow! So why don't we go out into your backyard and build one from scratch, eh?"

"HECK YEAH!" Anna gave a crazed grin.

"Absolutely NOT!" Elsa gave a surprised glare. "I-I will n-not allow weapons in my castle!"

"That's whah we're buildin it outside!" Merida promptly walked past a deeply displeased queen, followed by a princess who only sheepishly grin and shrug at Elsa at she passed.

"Sorry sis! Red's got another point!"

"Red! Pfft! Let's call her barbarian." Elsa muttered under her breath and stomped after them. "Women do not carry around weapons! That's how it's always been. And Anna-HMMPH! 'Sorry, Sis'! She says..She'll get a splinter out here by the time everything's started and she'll probably cry about it. I tried to warn her, but nooooooooo!...Hmmph. Build a weapon outside, blah blah blah."

"Does yer sistah usually talk to herself?"

"Only when she's being Elsa."

Anna's joke only made the two giggle and the queen talk more furiously.

* * *

Even for a day in summer, the outskirts of Arendelle's forest held no particular heat that would force them to turn back. If it had been there, Elsa would have gladly used that as an excuse to go back to the castle. Instead she used the idea of wolves, as Anna had encountered many coming up the mountain...only for Anna to point out that they 'migrate' during summer months. So she wound up standing near the two while Merida had broken off a sizeable piece of bark and seated herself on a stump. Anna bent her legs in a criss cross style and eagerly watched her.

"Now thaht we have ourselves a nice bow piece," Merida instructed, reaching down to pick up a huge rock with a convenientally slanted end. "We can scrape the' excess parts an' get it curvy."

Before Merida could begin scraping the center of the bark piece, Anna raised her hand politely. The cute action made Elsa fight to hide a smile. "Uh, wouldn't it be easier to use a thick twig as a bow?"

"Thaht's raght! But in the wilderness you might naht have thick twigs scattered aroun'." The girl resumed her scraping, which went watched both of the sister for quite some time. Elsa boredly watched with some boredom and often inspected her fingernails. Had fingernail polish been imported to Arendelle?

"...W-Well! While you two enjoy your b-bow making thing, I think I'll just walk over there." Elsa pointed off in a general direction of the forest and began walking. Anna cast her a meaningful, almost saddened look before reluctantly looking back at Merida.

So the Queen traveled into the thickly wooded forest, noting the way the green grass seemed to shine even when shaded by trees. A few flowers of various kinds sprouted up here and there along her journey, and the occasional ladybug would land on her arm. Elsa spotted a huge log and sat down on it with a sigh.

Merida had only been here for more than half an hour, and she seemed to be stealing Anna away from her. It was an absurd notion, but all the signs were there. It was as if the girl was becoming a role model for her little sister instead of Elsa herself. But she couldn't blame the princess, for she thought of herself as anything but a good role model or a big sister. Even if she wasn't either, the woman would try her hardest to be at least one of those things and get Anna's attention back.

As she continued to dive deeper into her thoughts, she idly ran a few fingers over the log that she was sitting on...and the feeling completely broke her out her thoughts. She ran her fingertips over the log again and squinted down at what was supposed to be bark.

Since when do logs have scales?

* * *

"As yoo can see, Ah have the' bow all carved out!" Merida proudly presented her finished product to Anna. With the perfect curved shaped it had, The princess clapped in approval and the Scottish royal bowed. "Thank yoo very much!"

"And what do you use for the string?"

The response was a thoughtful look. "Hmm...Ah usually use guitar strings wrapped in a very thin cloth. Maybe we'll have ta yooz a very thin bark piece. They are stable enough."

Anna got up from her seated position and looked off deeper into the forest. "Well, I might know a few strong tree types around here...But can we go find Elsa first? She must b-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!"

"...Elsa?!" Anna's heart skipped a beat just before ran forward into the forest, followed by a bow wielding Merida. The Princess continued to run forward and around trees to go in the direction of the scream, but stopped when a tall blue blur suddenly collided with her and made her crash to the ground. The next thing she knew, Elsa was helping her up and looking paler than usual. "Woah! Elsa? Geez you can hit hard."

"I-Its on my arm! It's my a-arm!" The blonde whimpered, holding out a shaking arm as if it were infected with something. Merida and Anna both looked over the queen's hands and noticed something clinging to the back of her hand.

"That..." The redhead raised an eyebrow. "Ez a harmless chameleon."

"J-Just get i-it off! Hurry!" Elsa commanded and shook her hand violently. Anna smiled softly and plucked the small green thing up with a hand, flinching when it made a squeaking sound and stared directly at her.

"Huh...A little weird for a chameleon to be out here in a forest..." The princess murmured suspiciously and peered closer at it. The chameleon... actually waved at her nervously. That was new. "And for it to be waving at me. You guys see this right?"

"Clear as day." Merida rubbed her chin in interest. "Must be intelligent."

"I don't care if it's a scientist," Elsa glared at it, but she didn't look like she really hated it. "It attacked me."

"It didn't even bite your hand." Anna giggled a bit at her and looked down at the chameleon. "You wouldn't bite her would you, little guy?"

The chameleon squeaked and shook his tiny green head.

"Aw, he's kinda cute, Elsa! Let's take him inside for a sec! He could be starving, the poor thing!" Anna suggested and decided that waiting for an answer would be a bad idea. She quickly jogged back towards the castle with the chameleon in her hands. The only sound she heard behind her was a disagreeing groan.

* * *

"Your majesties...and guest." The maid, Gerda, seemed to be awaiting Elsa and her current wilderness partners' arrival. She stopped short of them and bowed briefly before she stood up straight again. "My apologies if I've interrupted anything important."

Elsa raised a finger. "Well w-we-"

"We found a lizard!" Merida snatched up the chameleon and practically shoved it in Gerda's face. The older woman flinched and nodded briefly.

"How charming...I was going to inform you that we have guests on their way to this spot, seeking audience. You both should know them, as they were here during the coronation party."

Elsa smiled softly; her lips lightly curving upward. "I-Im afraid there aren't n-nearly enough context clues to know who you are referring to. "

Anna suddenly glanced down the hallway and exploded into a fit of smiling excitement. "EEEEEEEEEEE! RAPUNZEL!"

And indeed, walking down the hall towards them, was the brunette in question along with recently wed husband. The moment her name was squealed, Rapunzel burst into the same fit of excitement that Anna did. "EEEEEEEEEE! ANNA!"

At impossible speeds the two young women rushed towards each other collided in the loudest hug in history, somehow not causing either one to fall over. They giggled in a mixed up chorus and then started talking and jabbering over each other with the large smiles pushing at their cheeks. Elsa, even if she would never admit it, felt another pang of jealousy course through her.

"OH MY GOSH YOU LOOK SO BEAUTIFUL!" Rapunzel gushed and pointed at her pigtails.

"YOUR HAIR IS SO MUCH BETTER! IT'S SO BROWN!"

"I KNOW RIGHT! AND YOURS IS SO RED-ORANGEY!"

"THAT'S NOT EVEN A REAL WORD AND I LIKE IT!" Anna sent them both into a fit of giggles, and Elsa finally tapped Rapunzel on the shoulder.

"Hello again...Cousin. It's great to finally be able to s-speak with you." She began timidly. "Is there something I-I...We could do for you?"

The brunette's smile turned upside down immediately, as if she might burst into years any second. "Have you seen a small green chameleon, about this big and-"

The chameleon in Merida's hands squeaked and hopped onto Rapunzel's shoulder. Rapunzel, to say the least, was quite happy again. "Pascal! I found you! Well, they found you, but still! I missed you sooo much!"

"She really did. She threatened the captain to move the ship faster several times." Eugene explained to them casually. "Your majesties...and you?"

"Merida Dunbroch!"

"Ah,right. From the Scottish clans!" Rapunzel nodded excitedly, her hands still hugging and cradling Pascal. "Thanks for finding him you guys! Now there's only one thing left to do here before it's time to go home."

"And that is...?" Elsa raised an eyebrow.

"Family time. I figured that perhaps you guys would want to have some with a cousin like me on the way here. After all, our childhoods weren't... Very close with each other. I would have talked about this before randomly coming here, but then there was the incident...and Eugene wanted me to stay on the ship till things blew over and then the ship started leaving cuz the captain was afraid we'd be stuck there."

"I see, and...I have no trouble with you staying of course. After all, we are caring for Merida until we manage to send word to her family."

Anna gasped loudly and placed a hand on Elsa's shoulder, seemingly because she had an idea in mind...one that Elsa had a feeling she wouldn't like to hear. "I just had the best idea ever, Sis! Well, second best idea! The first best was adding spice to this grilled Tilapia the chef was making one time, and it tasted soooo spicy afterwards! It was great."

Elsa was about to ask why she hadn't tasted any of this Tilapia, but she shook her head."And your idea is?"

"Two Words:" The princess responded mischeviously. "Sleep-Over."

* * *

 **Ugh! I'm making these chapters so short, I'm sorry! The sleep over should be more than this.**


	6. Nothing Like The life I've lead so Far

"Merida's in Arendelle?"

Elinor finished reading over the letter that had been sent to the castle and drew her eyes upward to her husband. She handed him the paper with a curious smile on her lips, and yet she seemed somewhat relieved about the whole thing."So it seems. The new Queen wrote us this very lehter to proov et."

"Huh." King Fergus raised a shaggy eyebrow at all the fancy words in the letter but eventually came to the same conclusion as his wife. He cracked a grin. "Seems she is. And spending her stay with the Queen and princess. Hmm."

Elinor nodded, and her thoughts reminded her of how Mrrida even got there to begin with...which was a rather long story if she were to tell it. But to make things short, the boys did something to irritate Merida, Elinor and Fergus didn't take her side in the matter and she stormed off to who knows where. It was a bit surprising to see that she by herself had traveled that far...and of course relieving. She'd never forgive herself if her daughter died because of an action she should have taken in the first place.

"Well thaht settles things!" Fergus tossed the paper behind and began to walk off with a gesture to Elinor. "She's having a good time and there's no need to worry."

"Of course not. But she IS coming home this instant."

"ELINOR!"

"Dont Elinor me!" She bristled and glared. "She shouldn't have run off the first place."

"You mean to tell me that you want to take our most rebellious child back so soon?" Fergus asked. "She had to come back, ah agree! But what if we just let her have fun for a little while, eh? That would just leave us with the boys to handle."

"Even so..." Elinor began, but trailed off. This situation was a bit similar to an experience she had before involving marriage. That ended up with her being a bear. Elinor didn't want to be a bear again or anything else that Merida might try. "Hmm...actually...et's been ah while since our lahst vacation. But I'm not sure..."

"Please?"

"...I'm going to regret this. I really am." Elinor rolled her eyes. "Fine. Six more days."

"Only six?!" Fergus asked worriedly. "Elinor-"

"Be happy Ah'm giving you thaht much! Ah should have her come TWO days from now."

* * *

 _I really shouldn't do this. I'll mess it up._ Elsa frowned as water trickled from above and ran down her skin comfortingly. She'd agreed to the whole sleepover idea not many hours ago, and Anna had immediately set out to get supplies or something along those lines. It left her with a bit of awkward conversation with Eugene, although the awkward parts came from her really. Her constant and random stutters always seemed to show up in conversation.

But that wasn't what she worried about. Elsa was worried about the sleepover. What on earth do you in a sleepover?! If it weren't for the incident she would know this because she'd have done so many times with Anna...but she hasn't, so she has nothing to work with. Would they talk with each other about the simplest thing in the simplest way, while she stumbled over trying to think of conversation? Should she seclude herself?

 _No...I can't do that. I have to be there for her._ Elsa concluded, but the thoughts of abandoning the event were still popping up. She hummed a small, incredibly familiar tune that slowly but surely seemed to calm her down. As the water droplets continued to fall onto her, The Queen's self soothing hums lengthened into her humming out the first third of a song. Very quietly, or so Elsa liked to think since she believed she was alone, she sang a few more simple verses from that familiar song.

After some time she finished her shower and dried herself off, using the towel to cover her chest and far enough down past her waist;another towel she found was used to wrap around her hair. Satisfied, Elsa opened the bathroom door to step out.

"I didn't know you had a such a great voice, Elsa!"

"Augh!" Elsa slapped a hand over her chest swiftly, staring wide eyed in the direction of Princess Anna. She had still that happy smirk on her face. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

"Oh, you'll live." Her sister disregarded cheerfully and pointed at the bathroom. "So, I didn't know you sang in the shower, Elsa!"

"Well...I don't remember singing just now." Elsa replied said with a tinge of pink staining her cheeks. "I thought I was only...humming."

Anna tilted her head like an adorable puppy. "Uh huuuuuh. I didn't know humming involved words."

"I said I thought I was humming...Uh, what was I singing anyways?" Elsa walked over to her dresser, and reached in to pull out her nightgown and undergarnments. It would be easy to fashion something out of ice, but she loved the satin in this thing.

Anna shrugged nonchalantly. "I dunno. It was mostly vocalizing stuff. I could have sworn that I heard 'let it go'-"

"Do me a favor and don't ask about that please." Elsa quickly requested and turned around to face her sibling, clothes in hand. "...um..."

"Um what?"

She raised her nightgown.

"Oh don't worry sis! I have mine ready."

The monarch shook her head quickly. "No, that's not...I-Im about to put these things on."

Anna stared at her.

"Which means I'll be... n-naked. Until I get this on t-that is."

"Sooooo...?"

"So, you need to leave for a moment. I don't need you seeing me naked, thank you." Elsa sarcastically explained and placed her hands on her hips.

Anna rolled her eyes and stood up from the foot of the bed. "Seriously? You're worried about me seeing more skin? We're sisters, Elsa! You've seen me naked before and I've seen you naked before!"

"I was three. You were 11 months old. Mother was giving us a bath. Neither of us will remember doing that, especially you."

"Okay. Okay." The princess slapped a hand over her eyes.

"Anna!"

"Whaaaat?! I won't peek! Cross my heart!" Was the response.

Elsa sighed, keeping an eye on her sister as she disrobed and...re-robed herself in her clothing items. She looked back up Anna and cleared her throat. The sibling immediately dropped her hand. "Geez you take a long time. Guess it's true what they say about old people."

"I'm not that much older than you, Anna!" The comment made the queen giggle softly. "Now don't you have a shower to take? I won't have a sleepover if you'll be smelling like...something terrible."

Anna nodded and made for the door, but stopped halfway in front of her sister. "Uh...T-Thanks, Elsa."

Elsa narrowed her eyes. "For what...?"

"You could've just easily backed yourself out of this whole sleepover thing and done whatever you wanted to by yourself. But you willingly decided to join us for this...that means a lot to me." Anna sincerely grinned and enveloped Elsa in a soft, blush inducing hug. " I don't think I would've enjoyed this without you to be there."

Long after Anna left, Elsa's smile faded.

* * *

 _Elsa grinned as she carried the multiple piles of sheets in her tiny arms and brought them to her room. When she entered through the doorway, A three year old Anna was already happily waiting for her on the bed. The little girl was bouncing up and down excitedly, squealing when she saw Elsa come in. "Yay! You got the sheets!"_

 _"Yes, but be quiet." Elsa smiled and pressed a finger to her lips. "Mama and Papa said we can't be loud."_

 _Acting as if she'd said something unladylike, the little girl slapped her hands over her mouth._

 _"Now let's start building our fort! Here, take this part and tie it up to your end of the bed and tie it up to that part!"_

 _"Okay!" Anna scamped over to the low part of her bed and tied a corner of the sheet to a bedpost, then the other corner to the other bedpost. Elsa busied herself with climbing up her canopy post and fitting a tie around the thick wooden structures. The two of them continued to race up and down and all around the room to tie up sheets to different areas and to get all the 'walls' of their sheet fort up. Eventually, they finished their long task._

 _"It's finished, Elsa! It's finished!" Anna gazed proudly at the structure they'd made._

 _Elsa looked up the dull ceiling light in the room and tilted her head. Using her hands, she built a sort of icy diamond around the light but not so much as to block it out. Now the room was bathed a crystal blue glow with twinkles like stars here and there._

 _"WOW! That was really neat, Elsa!" Needless to say, a certain someone never ceased to be impressed._

 _"Thanks, Anna. And I'd say you did a good job tying up the sheets." Elsa smiled. As expected, the little girl gave her big sister a tight hug and grinned up at her._

 _"I love you Elsa."_

 _"I love you too, Anna." Was the sincere response that foreshadowed a tighter hug. "...so, how about a pillow fight?"_

 _"Oh, you're going DOWN!" Anna hopped up and down in anticipation and sped off for the nearest pillow. Still smiling, Elsa did the same._

* * *

"Princess Anna's sleepover. No guys allowed."

Elsa raised an eyebrow when she finished reading the crudely written sign on her sister's door, accompanied by giggling sounds from within the room. But before she could even think about reaching for the doorknob, she hesitated and thought about how embrassing her social skills would be towards her. How was she to make a good impression on the girls or Anna...especially Anna? Her little sister was probably expecting her to try and conversate, even if she hadn't said so herself.

"Hi Elsa!" She turned to see Olaf waddling down the hallway towards her, followed by Eugene and Kristoff. The two human males seemed much less thrilled than Olaf, but Olaf was always thrilled. "Whatcha dooooin?"

"I-I was about head inside Anna's Sleepover room."

"Oh! That boring old place! Pfft!" The snowman waved a hand and dismissively and smirked. "We're going to have a BOYS sleepover room. And it'll be way runner than your GIRLS sleepoverroom! Heheh heh!"

Else looked up at Olaf's travel buddies quizzacly.

"Never play gold fish with a snowman." Was all Eugene could say begrudgingly. "And place a bet on him winning the game."

"Where is Sven?" She inquired with a raised eyebrow to Kristoff. Half of her was wondering why that reindeer wasn't with them and half of her was worried that he was tracking mud all over the clean carpets.

"He chickened out on the thing." Kristoff explained and rolled his eyes. "Went on about how he'd be such a party pooper."

Pascal slowly crawled out onto Eugene's head and gave her a toothless grin. Seeing her recoil, the Prince smiled knowingly. "Yeah, he was kinda creepy at first. But he grows on ya!"

"Okay dokay! Nuff chit chat! Bye Elsa! Have a great time with your super fun..." Olaf stopped waddling away for a second or two. "I mean...have a great time with your BORING girls night!"

The queen half smirked as the three dissapeared down the hall, but the but of amusement on her face faded away as she remembered what she was to do now.

* * *

Anna couldn't stop grinning as she watched Merida and Rapunzel set up places to sit down on the carpeted floor. Well, Merida was already seated on the floor impatiently; her brunette cousin was still standing up and figuring out where she was gonna sit, but Anna did care very much. This was going to be the first time in forever since Elsa had a sleepover with her!

One who didn't know the Arendelle sisters so much would have thought that since they lived in the same castle the point of a sleepover was stupid. But even with one's history aside, a sleepover involving a sister was a great bonding opportunity and provided character development. There was the trouble of getting Elsa into the conversations and all, but Anna had an idea that would start the sleepover off with the queen herself. The only thing they were waiting now was her arrival.

"Wow! This carpet is so nice," Rapunzel grinned and scrunched her bare toes up in the fuzzy flooring. Going around with no socks must have been something she liked, since Anna and Merida were definitely wearing socks. "I can't decide where to sit! What kind of carpet is this?"

"British heat-trapper." Was the response from Anna. "No, that's not the actual name, but the real name is harder to say."

"Yer sister sure ez tekkin her sweet time, isn't she?" The Scottish teen of the room formed a straight with her lips.

"Oh relax you! We have most of the might and then some! Elsa'll be here any second now. She's probably deciding over what kind of robe she should wear. Speaking of which, are those nightgowns Kai sent us good enough?"

"Ets a beet snug, but ets very nice!"

"I wish I'd gotten pink."

"Sorry, I used up all the pink in this shoe incident. Funny story, let me tell ya-" Her story couldn't get out before the bedroom door opened and Elsa cautiously walked in.

"H-Hello…" Elsa waved timidly at them, which was totally adorable.

Anna motioned for her to join the small group, and Rapunzel plopped down randomly next to Merida when Elsa drew near. The blonde slowly seated herself on her calves and the back of her ankles, adopting a sort of serious and regal posture.

"Well! It's great to have everyone here now! Without further ado, we shall commence this wonderful sleepover and enjoy it! " Anna announced proudly in front of them. She whipped out a small piece of paper that she'd scribbled on earlier. "I have a slight criteria for this event, and I've got ice cream, cookies, punch and popcorn scheduled for an hour from now."

"What's popcorn?"

"You'll see." She turned her attention to Elsa, who was nervously twiddling the end of her braid. "Now, our first activity requires Elsa's willingness."

The woman looked up. "My willingness?"

Anna quickly nodded and reached behind her before pulling out a small book. "I want you to read us at least one story."

"A-A story?...I-I don't know...I don't t-think I-"

"Pretty please? It's a short story, honest! Here, look at the title."

The monarch gingerly took the book, which seemed a bit thicker than Anna last remembered it. Her blue eyes narrowed at the cover. "...Fifty shades of-"

"ACK! Wrong book! My bad! Heh heh!" The princess snatched the book right out of her hands with a ferocious blush and tossed it into the farthest corner of the bedroom. Elsa looked like she just had a heart attack. "Okay! Sorry about that...THIS is the book I wanted you to read…"

"...Jack and the beanstalk?" Elsa looked at her with a touched expression blossoming, for reasons soon to be revealed. "This...This is the book that…"

"Yeah, I know. You gave it to me when we were younger and said I could keep it. " Anna blushed more faintly now, and added in a shrug. The princess did distantly remember a three year old self begging a five year old Elsa to read the story. "I just thought that maybe you'd...like to read it again?"

The way Elsa was staring at the book, Anna was worried that she'd burst into tears any second. But surprisingly, the woman composed herself in a manner that Anna couldn't help but admire...well, to an extent. For the queen glanced at the waiting faces of the others and cringed. "A-Are you sure? I might n-not tell it so well…"

"Oh come on then! Grow a backbone an' read it!" Merida chimed in, causing Elsa to halfheartedly glare at her.

"Pretty please, Sis?"

"C'mon! You can't be that bad!" Rapunzel offered.

"No!" Elsa suddenly snapped, then looked as if she had sworn in front of them. Anna frowned as her older sister looked away from them and towards the ground, as if both ashamed and yearning to leave the room. It made the pigtailed woman feel guilty and stupid; she shouldn't have tried getting Elsa to read. Maybe that was too big a step to make?

"...that's alright. I'll read it." Anna eventually spoke after some uncomfortable silence and gently took the book away to begin reading.

* * *

She'd been berating herself ever since she shouted at Rapunzel and long after Anna finished reading the book to them. It was totally uncalled for on her part, yet she had no idea how to apologize to her or the others...especially Anna. Why couldn't she do something so simple; to read a book? What is because of the memories of the book that would eventually lead to the memories of isolation? All of her thoughts seemed to lead to those years.

Elsa was currently still sitting as Merida finished her embarrassing story, part of the event Anna had named 'Laughing story time' for some reason. Rapunzel had recalled a point in which she tried to cook an entire four course breakfast for her parents, and the entire kingdom' s fire department had to surround the castle in the end. Elsa couldn't recall much of what Merida had been talking about since she hadn't been paying attention, but when she tried to listen on the tale:

"...After th' boar lost th' left leg, it sort of hobbled aroun' with me riding' along on ets back, right before Ah fell into a big steaming pile of..."

She decided that it would be best to figure out a way to make things up to Anna and the others instead. However, as she thought of about eleven ways to screw up saying sorry, she couldn't help but slowly listen to Anna's voice when it rang out. "Alright so, it's the story I was mentioning earlier, girls. So, there was this really weird event that I might have caused involving the inside of shoes, a shoe factory and whole bunch of termites that kept in a jar."

Everyone, including Elsa, gave her a blank stare.

"I was young okay?" Anna scowled. "So, I didn't really know that the inside soles of the shoes were made of wood at the time and...stop staring at me like that! I don't know why I took a bunch of termites there! ANYWAYS, long story short I accidentally cracked the jar over my head...don't ask, and then the termites sortve started crawling all over me. And you know me: can't have ANY bugs crawling over me! And I sorta scraped them off my arms and onto a few shoes...and after THAT incident I had to quickly replace the inside of the shoes with pink silk. That's why the shoes in Arendelle...look like that."

Elsa raised an eyebrow and thought about that. The inside of her shoes had changed from wood to salmon suddenly in the past, and her story was starting to make perfect sense. Suddenly she imagined her perfect, adorable little sister hopping around like a madwoman and screaming and clawing st her body in the most absurd poses. Elsa snorted and coughed when Anna looked at her.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Y-Yeah..." Elsa responded and tried to keep a straight face after, but ended up biting her bottom lip and half smiling. Even that fell away, causing the blonde to bow her head slightly as she openly laughed.

"Seriously? It wasn't really that funny...You wouldn't laugh if there were bugs on you." Anna told her this, but it sounded as if she were happy she was laughing.

"I-Im sorry...! It's too...It's t-too funny to think a-about..."

She wheezed softly into her palm, which birthed soft snickers from Rapunzel and Merida. Anna was giggling almost at her level, her eyes watering slightly. Elsa meant to inhale but kept laughing as she did so. This ultimately resulted in Elsa giving a loud, piglike snort that everyone hurt. She stopped laughing and slapped her hands over her mouth while silence filled the room.

"...BAAAAAHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!" Merida suddenly fell backwards laughing and The other three girls immediately continued to guffaw because of this. It took a few minutes, but things settled back down enough for Anna to gesture to Elsa. The woman shook her head softly however, to indicate that she had no stories to tell them. Anna nodded knowingly at her.

* * *

"Okay girls! This is where you will learn the magic of Popcorn!" Anna explained to the three in the kitchen, while holding a nice plastic bag with hidden content. Before she began, she had set up a small pot on the oven and placed a thin slice of butter at the bottom of the pot. "I learned how to do this one time when I was bored."

"Yoo being bored feels less believable now." Merida pointed out.

"Eh, even I can be bored." Anna opened the bag and poured in a 1/4 pound of hardened kernels into the pot and prompted curious stares from her sleepover buddies. "There, now that it's all in the bowl we can turn on the stove!"

Elsa squinted at the pot and then at Anna. "Were those kernels? Why'd you put them in a pot?"

The princess didn't respond to her and merely walked over to a cupboard. Instead of cups, her hands retrieved four huge bowls that she then handed out to the three and herself. Then she pushed each one individually until they were all side by side in front of the pot. Anna stood to the right Elsa, who was on the far right end. "Raise up your bowls and prepare to catch, girls!"

"C-Catch wha-"

POP!

A tiny blur of white sped out of the pot and flew straight at them. Elsa squeaked when it landed in her bowl and for a moment she was too worried to look at it. But Anna reached in and picked up the small object.

"This is a popcorn! It's edible, really!" She pushed the popcorn against her sister's lips. "Go on. Eat it."

"Sewiousplee?" Elsa kept her teeth shut at least.

"Oh come on! Just try it!" She urged and finally her sibling chewed on the popcorn. The chewing turned a bit more thoughtful and accepting after a moment or two, and Elsa shrugged halfheartedly.

"See? It's good! Now try tilting the bowl just slightly down, it helps in catching them when they fly out!"

Almost immediately after saying that, an army of popcorn pieces launched out of the pot with loud popping noises. The girls all rushed to and fro to catch them with loud giggles and the sound of feet slapping wildly against the floor as they tried to get most of the pieces. By the time all of the popcorn pieces had popped there was still quite a few on the floor, which Elsa managed to clean from the floor with a gust of ice magic.

Anna looked over at her when everyone retrieved a bit of punch and cookies that were saved from earlier. Elsa still had a smile from her own popcorn catching, and yet it still didn't seem very happy. No matter how much she laughed or how much she smiled, there always looked as if some part of Elsa always felt helpless and sad. Anna knew it wasn't her fault, but it was darn annoying.

Oh well,maybe this time it was something Elsa had to do for herself?

* * *

Subsequently following a pillow fight that a certain someone sat out of, They had all retired when everyone agreed that it was time to go to bed. Merida had taught Rapunzel how to create a bed put of nothing but a blanket and a pillow, and Elsa was sharing Anna's bed with her sister. The blonde was still wide awake despite being tired, so she just stayed in bed while Anna snored loudly in that adorable way of hers and curled into a ball next to her. It was quiet aside from the sounds of sleep, and so such silence prompted Elsa's mind to begin thinking as deeply as it usually did.

The night had been more than wonderful, even if it didn't provide as much bonding with her sister as she would have liked. She had fun, Anna had fun and everyone else had fun: together. It was a step towards their bonding being completed and if Elsa was hopeful enough, she would be an entirely new and lovable big sister by the end of it. Perhaps things would be as great as before those years or before the accident or before her parents...

Her parents. Elsa remembered them as if they were still with them in the castle; it hurt her heart that her memory worked like that. There were far too many mornings where she missed the gentle voice of her mother or the intelligent voice of her father waking her up. She wished they hadn't ever gone over seas at all, and she wished they were here to see how happy the sisters were and would be. She wished they were all back together again, and being happier than before now that she and Anna knew better about her ice magic. She had things she wanted to tell them, but knew that she would never truly be able to tell them a thing.

...or could she?

Elsa looked down at Anna and after hesitating, leaned down to kiss her forehead. The princess grinned ever so slightly in her sleep, and Elsa returned it lovingly. Then, she crept out of bed and stalked out of the door of the bedroom.

...

The Queen paid no attention to the tree branches that lightly scraped against her nightgown and arms or the lack of light for her path, for she knew exactly where she was headed. Her legs shook almost violently when she began to leave the edge of the woods and advance up the terribly familiar hill, but they shook not because of pain. Elsa had tried to keep her emotional composure on the trip, but the ice spreading out crookedly from her feet signaled her growing stress and anxiety. She carried herself up the hill with a bit of a struggle due to her sight, but the dim light of the moon highlighted two huge boulders at the top of the hill. She finally stopped when she was at the top of the dark slope, planting herself before the two huge boulders.

She felt her gaze meet the boulder on the left first. Her mouth opened to say something after a while, but she hesitated and then shook her head slowly. She stood there for three minutes in absolute silence, before sucking in a sharp breath and opening her mouth timidly again.

"...h...H-Hello...M-mother..."

The tombstone of Queen Iduna faced her silently.

"A-And Hello...F-Father. It's great to, u-um, see you b-both again." For the briefest time, Elsa forced a smile on her face. "I-I'm doing fine...a-and so is A-Anna..She knows about m-my powers now. I told her...*sniffle*...I...I learned how to control m-my curse. I never had to conceal it or not feel it, F-father... I just needed love from her...th-that was all...'

Elsa paused and wiped a stray tear that was rolling down her cheeks.

"I know you both would w-want me to be a good influence r-right now, to be a big sister...B-but I don't know how! I n-never wanted to forget, b-but I've f-forgotten how to t-teach her right from wrong like you taught me or how t-to be strong and how to get to know people! I built a...I...I-I built a snowman w-with her for the first time since then...b-but it doesn't f-feel right! Nothing feels t-the same!"

She hadn't realized it, but Elsa had fallen to her knees by this point and openly sobbed before the tombstones. She cried for what seemed like hours for her and buried her face in her hands, feeling her heart ache more and more and more. The sobs,however, lasted as long as they would last and died away into sniffles and brief whimpers.

"...b-but I know..i know what y-you would want me to do and I-I don't disagree...You want me to keep trying to be a big sister. Y-you want me to try to do it. You w-want me to be positive about this...And..." Elsa swallowed and nodded at the tombstones. "I will try...I-I promise to y-you and to A-Anna that I w-will try my hardest to be there for her when she needs me and e-even when she doesn't! And I will protect her...I'll protect Anna from anyone and anything that tries to h-hurt her."

Her thoughts distantly flickered to Dod Luften, who may be transpiring to attack the only family she had left at this moment.

"No matter what happens."

* * *

 **Aaaand Cut!**

 **Thanks for reading the latest chapter of this story! I apologize for some parts: They seem to cut off so quickly for me. oh well...The end of this chapter foreshadows a road trip coming very soon. Well, more like a 'sea trip'. Anyway, enjoy and review please!**


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